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The makers of a suicide pod have been accused of trying to financially exploit one of their clients prior to her assisted suicide death.

Jennifer McLaughlin, a 55-year-old American, reportedly traveled to Switzerland in July to become the first person to die via the so-called Sarco suicide pod.

“Cast along sleek, aerodynamic lines, the ‘Sarco’ causes death when its occupant releases nitrogen gas inside, lowering the amount of oxygen to lethal levels,” according to CNN.

The way it works is that the suicide patient enters the pod, closes it, and then hears the words “If you want to die, press this button.” Upon pressing the button, nitrogen gas is released.

“There are several ways in which the process can be activated within the pod, including eye movement and voice control for those who have less mobility,” the Daily Mail notes. “However once the pod is activated, there is no way to stop or reverse the process.”

But before McLaughlin could use the pod, she penned a letter to the Swiss media accusing the Last Resort, the organization that made the Sarco suicide pod, of trying to exploit her.

She wrote in the letter that she’d cashed out her life savings of $40,000 prior to traveling to Switzerland, only to have the Last Resort’s staff members start pressuring her to spend the money because she “won’t need it after I die.”

She also complained that the Last Resort had created a “media circus” around her planned death.

“I felt manipulated and exploited,” she wrote, according to the Daily Mail. “If I had known that the deeply heartless people who held my fate in their hands were mainly driven by their own media presence and marketing, I would never have subjected myself to this ordeal.”

The good news is that McLaughlin wound up not using the Sarco suicide pod — allegedly after being denied access because of mental health concerns. The bad news is she did end up committing assisted suicide with the help of another Swiss organization.

“In a statement released by The Last Resort after her passing, they said she had turned to the Pegasos Swiss Association for help in her assisted death,” the Daily Mail notes. “They also said that McLaughlin was told that the use of the Sarco was withdrawn from her due to mental health concerns.”

“In the first week of July it became obvious that she was not coping with her chosen path towards her assisted suicide,” they wrote. “Ms. McLaughlin should never have been helped to suicide. She was a person who urgently needed mental health care. This was why access to the Sarco was declined to her.”

As for the Last Resort, they wound up finding someone else to put to death. That person was reportedly put to death on Monday, the same day that several members of the organization were detained by Swiss authorities.

“Florian Willet, co-president of The Last Resort, was among the four detainees, along with a Dutch journalist and two Swiss people,” CNN notes. “Willet was the only other person present when the woman ended her life.”

Why have they been detained given that assisted suicide is legal there? Because according to Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, the Swiss minister responsible for health, the Sarco pod doesn’t meet product safety requirements, and its use of nitrogen is illegal.

However, staff members were reportedly warned before they used the pod.

“We warned them in writing,” Schaffhausen Public Prosecutor Peter Sticher told the Swiss newspaper Blick. “We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.”

Vivek Saxena
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