Swiss police have arrested a group they say helped a U.S. woman end her life with an unapproved "suicide pod."
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00:00The inventors of this suicide pod, called the Sarko, say their device gives people a
00:04pain-free, dignified way to end their lives.
00:07A push of a button fills the capsule with nitrogen, putting the occupant to sleep and
00:10then suffocating them within minutes.
00:13But in Switzerland, where the law allows assisted suicide, the device's backers are in legal
00:17trouble.
00:18Swiss police have arrested a group of people they say helped a seriously ill woman from
00:22the U.S. end her life near the German border using a Sarko on Monday, the first time the
00:26device has actually been used.
00:29And the problem is that the device isn't approved.
00:57But one of the Sarko's co-inventors says the pod is an improvement on methods that
01:00are already in use, legal or not.
01:03People have been using the method of nitrogen for a while in the right to die movement where
01:08people would use things which aren't very attractive like plastic bags and they would
01:13try to use gas from a compressed cylinder to be able to end their lives.
01:17This makes it something which is much more elegant, much more stylish and beautiful.
01:22Those detained now face charges of inciting, aiding and abetting suicide.
01:26But the Sarko's co-inventor stands by his creation and the deeply divisive practice
01:29of assisted suicide as a whole.
01:32There are some people who don't approve of the idea of assisted suicide at all.
01:35They would never approve of it.
01:37Now, often these people have religious convictions and they say, look, this is a matter only
01:41between you and God.
01:42Now, those beliefs are interesting and they're okay.
01:45I don't mind those beliefs, but they're not my beliefs and they're not the beliefs of
01:49many people who decide they want to control their deaths.
01:52But that's not a view a majority of the world's governments share.
01:56And even in liberal Switzerland, the controversial Sarko seems to have reached a limit on what
02:00officials are willing to allow.
02:02Howard Zhang and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.