A euthanasia advocate who was arrested over the first reported use of a “suicide pod” has taken his own life, according to the device’s inventor.
Dr Florian Willet, 47, was held by police last year in connection with the death of a 64-year-old woman on suspicion of “inciting and abetting suicide” and a “strong suspicion of the commission of an intentional homicide”.
He was released in December after two months in custody as police in Switzerland ruled out the possibility of intentional killing.
It followed the apparent first use of the Sarco suicide capsule, a sealed chamber that releases gas at the press of a button.
The accusations took a heavy psychological toll on Dr Willet, according to the device’s inventor, Dr Philip Nitschke.
Dr Nitschke told Dutch news outlet Volkskrant that Dr Willet died last month by suicide.
“When Florian was released suddenly and unexpectedly from pre-trial detention in early December 2024, he was a changed man,” Dr Nitschke said.
“Gone was his warm smile and self-confidence. In its place was a man who seemed deeply traumatised by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation.”
Dr Nitschke dismissed claims that the woman might have been strangled as “absurd”. He said he had watched her death in a wood in the northern Schaffhausen region of Switzerland by video, and that the device worked as planned.
The Sarco was built to allow a person sitting in its reclining seat to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber.
A friend of Dr Willet, who was head of euthanasia advocacy group The Last Resort, told Volkskrant he had become increasingly distant in the aftermath of the arrest.
“This friendly, positive man had changed into an anxious, suspicious person who no longer trusted even his best friends,” said Laura. “He lived in his own world. He became increasingly distant from his friends.”
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