Latest news with #assistedSuicide
Wall Street Journal
23-06-2025
- Health
- Wall Street Journal
Why Can't New York Fix Hospice Care First?
My colleagues in Albany say they voted for 'medical aid in dying,' but that's a euphemism. Your editorial 'New York's Assisted-Suicide Mistake' (June 11) gets to the heart of the issue—that the state Senate granted the government and medical professionals the power to sanction death. I voted no on the bill for several reasons. Among them: I believe all life is precious and that no one can predict the future with certainty. We shouldn't make irreversible decisions based on imperfect 'terminal' prognoses. The state also shouldn't speak out both sides of its mouth. New York spends millions each year on improving mental-health and antisuicide efforts. The bill would send a contradictory and dangerous message.
New York Times
14-06-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Why the Euthanasia Slope Is Slippery
This week the Legislature of New York State passed a bill, now sitting on Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk, allowing assisted suicide for people facing a diagnosis that gives them six months or less to live. A few days before the vote, my colleague Katie Engelhart published a report on the expansive laws allowing 'medical assistance in dying' in Canada, which were widened in 2021 to allow assisted suicide for people without a terminal illness, detailing how they worked in the specific case of Paula Ritchie, a chronically ill Canadian euthanized at her own request. Many people who support assisted suicide in terminal cases have qualms about the Canadian system. So it's worth thinking about what makes a terminal-illness-only approach to euthanasia unstable, and why the logic of what New York is doing points in a Canadian direction even if the journey may not be immediate or direct. In a debate about euthanasia I was once asked, by the husband of a woman who sought assisted suicide unsuccessfully before her painful death, what I would have had the doctors offer her in place of the quietus she sought. His implication was that doctors always need to offer something: In most situations, that means care and treatment, but at the exceptional point when nothing further can be given, it's legitimate to expect them to deliver something else. This is the logic that undergirds laws that offer assisted suicide only to the terminally ill. It assumes that the dying have entered a unique zone where the normal promises of medicine can no longer be kept, a state of exception where it makes sense to license doctors to deliver death as a cure. The problem is that a situation where the doctor tells you that there's nothing more to be done for you is not really exceptional at all. Every day, all kinds of people are told that their suffering has no medical solution: people with crippling injuries, people with congenital conditions and people — like Ms. Ritchie — with an array of health problems whose etiology science does not even understand. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
05-06-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Euthanasia Advocate Who Assisted in Woman's Suicide Dies in Germany
Florian Willet, a euthanasia advocate who was detained by Swiss authorities last year after being present when an American woman ended her life using a chamber-like device, has died. Mr. Willet's death was reported in an obituary posted on the website of The Last Resort, his assisted dying group, written by Philip Nitschke, the inventor of the device, known as a Sarco capsule. Mr. Nitschke said in an email that Mr. Willet had died by assisted suicide, but further details about his death remained unclear. The police in Germany, where Mr. Willet died, could not immediately be reached for comment. Mr. Willet, who was 47, according to the obituary, was the only person with the American woman when she died using the Sarco device in a remote forest in Switzerland in September. He was arrested, along with three others, by the Swiss authorities, who said at the time that the group was under investigation for 'aiding and abetting suicide.' The incident amplified thorny questions surrounding assisted dying even in Switzerland, where laws around the practice have led thousands of people to seek assisted death from right-to-die organizations based there in recent years. Mr. Willet was released from pretrial detention in December, after which 'he was a changed man,' Mr. Nitschke wrote. 'Gone was his warm smile and self-confidence. In its place was a man who was deeply traumatized by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Suicide pod activist takes his own life after being arrested for murder of woman who used the Sarco pod he promoted
A euthanasia advocate who was quizzed by murder detectives after the death of a woman using a controversial Sarco euthanasia pod has died by assisted suicide, it was announced yesterday. Dr Florian Willet, 47, was arrested in September 2024 following the death of the 64-year-old woman after police claimed there were strangulation marks on her neck. He was the only person present for the death of the woman, who was the first person to use the Sarco suicide device, which had been set up in a forest near Merishausen, Switzerland. Dr Willet was held when police arrived at the scene and he remained in custody for 70 days as investigators probed the circumstances surrounding the death. The public prosecutor said that there had been a 'strong suspicion' that 'intentional homicide' had been at play. But these accusations were said to have such a traumatic effect on the author and activist that he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice before his death on May 5. Exit International Director Dr Philip Nitschke, who invented the Sarco pod, wrote yesterday: 'When Florian was released suddenly and unexpectedly from pre-trial detention in early December 2024, he was a changed man. 'Gone was his warm smile and self-confidence. In its place was a man who seemed deeply traumatized by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation.' Dr Nitschke told Dutch news outlet Volkskrant that Dr Willet died last month in Cologne 'with the help of a specialized organization'. In Dr Willet's obituary, which yesterday announced his death, Dr Nitschke revealed that the 47-year-old had 'fallen' from the third floor of his property in Zurich earlier this year, causing him 'serious damage'. Dr Nitschke said he was fully assessed by a psychiatric team during his three-month recovery, who said Dr Willet had developed 'an acute polymorphic psychotic disorder'. He says this had been brought on 'following the stress of pre-trial detention and the associated processes'. Dr Nitschke added: 'No one was surprised. Florian's spirit was broken. He knew that he did nothing illegal or wrong, but his belief in the rule of law in Switzerland was in tatters. 'In the final months of his life, Dr Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should.' Dr Willet had informed Swiss authorities after the woman's death and they quickly descended on the forest. Police discovered the woman's lifeless body inside the pod and arrested several people. Dr Willet was detained with two lawyers and a Volkskrant photographer who had been taking pictures of the pod and documented the woman arriving in the woodland. The public prosecutor in the Schaffhausen canton said that Sarco's creators had been warned not to use the device in the region, but that the warning had not been heeded. 'We warned them in writing,' prosecutor Peter Sticher said in September. 'We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.' Dr Willet described the death in the controversial capsule as 'peaceful, fast and dignified'. Following allegations of 'strangle marks' on the first person to use the Sarco, a person close to Swiss Sarco operator The Last Resort said she had previously been diagnosed with skull base osteomyelitis. The disease could manifest as an infection of the bone marrow, which could have been responsible for the marks on her neck resembling strangulation marks, the person told Swiss outlet NZZ. The pod is designed so that the push of a button injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, with the person inside then dying by suffocation within a few minutes. Before his arrest Dr Willet said he had 'considered' suicide at the age of five. His father died by suicide when he was 14 years old and he said he was 'completely fine with it.' He added: 'I was extremely sad because I loved my father. But, I understood immediately my father wanted to do this because he was a rational person, which means that expecting him to remain alive just because I need a father would mean extending his suffering.'
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Sarco activist dead at 47: Man who was arrested for murder after a woman ended her life in a pod dies by assisted suicide
A euthanasia advocate who was questioned for murder after the death of a woman using a suicide pod last year has died by assisted suicide, it was announced yesterday. Dr Florian Willet, 47, was arrested in September 2024 following the death of a 64-year-old woman using a Sarco suicide pod after she was allegedly found inside with strangulation marks on her neck. He was only person present for the death of the woman, who was the first person to use the nitrogen gas capsule, after it had been set up in a forest near Merishausen, Switzerland. Dr Willet was arrested when police arrived at the scene and he remained in custody for 70 days as investigators probed the circumstances surrounding the death. The public prosecutor said that there had been a 'strong suspicion' that 'intentional homicide' had been at play. But these accusations were said to have such a traumatic effect on the author and activist that he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice before his death on May 5. Exit International Director Dr Philip Nitschke, who invented the Sarco pod, wrote yesterday: 'When Florian was released suddenly and unexpectedly from pre-trial detention in early December 2024, he was a changed man. '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 told Dutch news outlet Volkskrant that Dr Willet died last month in Cologne 'with the help of a specialized organization'. In Dr Willet's obituary, which yesterday announced his death, Dr Nitschke revealed that the 47-year-old had 'fallen' from the third floor of his property in Zurich earlier this year, causing him 'serious damage'. Dr Nitschke said he was fully assessed by a psychiatric team during his three-month recovery, who said Dr Willet had developed 'an acute polymorphic psychotic disorder'. He says this had been brought on 'following the stress of pre-trial detention and the associated processes'. Dr Nitschke added: 'No one was surprised. Florian's spirit was broken. He knew that he did nothing illegal or wrong, but his belief in the rule of law in Switzerland was in tatters. 'In the final months of his life, Dr Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should.' Dr Willet had informed Swiss authorities after the woman's death and they quickly descended on the forest. Police discovered the woman's lifeless body inside the pod and arrested several people. Dr Willet was detained with two lawyers and a Volkskrant photographer who had been taking pictures of the pod and documented the woman arriving in the woodland. The public prosecutor in the Schaffhausen canton said that Sarco's creators had been warned not to use the device in the region, but that the warning had not been heeded. 'We warned them in writing,' prosecutor Peter Sticher said in September. 'We said that if they came to Schaffhausen and used Sarco, they would face criminal consequences.' Dr Willet described the death in the controversial capsule as 'peaceful, fast and dignified'. The pod is designed so that the push of a button injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, with the person inside then dying by suffocation within a few minutes. Before his arrest Dr Willet said he had 'considered' suicide at the age of five. His father died by suicide when he was 14 years old and he said he was 'completely fine with it.' He added: 'I was extremely sad because I loved my father. But, I understood immediately my father wanted to do this because he was a rational person, which means that expecting him to remain alive just because I need a father would mean extending his suffering.' For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116123 or visit
