SWITZERLAND - Controversial Suicide Capsule
The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used outside a village near the German border.
The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country but assisted dying has been legal for decades.
On the same day it was used, Switzerland’s Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told lawmakers that the Sarco was “not legal.”
The death took place “under a canopy of trees, at a private forest retreat.”
The [Last Resort] association’s co-president Florian Willet was the only other person present, and described the woman’s death as “peaceful, fast and dignified,” according to the statement.
The Sarco suicide capsule was secured and the deceased taken away for an autopsy.
“We found the capsule with the lifeless person inside,” said Schaffhausen’s public prosecutor Peter Sticher.
He told Blick newspaper that several people were arrested “so that they were not colluding with each other or covering up evidence.”
The Sarco was invented by Philip Nitschke, a leading global figure in right-to-die activism.
-www.yahoo.com, 24 September 2024
Arno's Commentary
In April of 2002, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize active euthanasia. Several other countries followed, but in most countries it’s not legal.
In the United States, assisted suicide is legal in only a few states.
The article from yahoo.com identifies a 64-year-old woman from the United States who committed suicide in the “Sarco.” Such is a great tragedy, particularly for the United States where an abundance of churches, ministries, and literature advise people of the immorality of taking one’s life.
Most important is what Jesus said: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26). Our temporary existence on earth serves as a period in which we may decide to accept life everlasting or reject it. Have you accepted life eternal?
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
