Several detained after American's 'suicide capsule' death in Switzerland: Police

Multiple people were detained and a criminal case has been opened in northern Switzerland after a person died by assisted suicide Monday, according to police in the town of Schaffhausen.

"Several persons" were taken into custody on suspicion of "incitement and aiding and abetting suicide," Schaffhausen police said.

The assisted suicide was carried out using a "Sarco" capsule, police said. According to the Associated Press, the device allows a person to sit inside the sealed chamber and press a button, which then fills the capsule with nitrogen gas, causing oxygen levels to drop. The person then falls asleep and dies of suffocation.

Philip Nitschke -- an Australian doctor who created the device and founder of the "right to die" advocacy nonprofit Exit International -- told Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant that the person who died via the capsule was a 64-year-old American woman who traveled to Switzerland to use it. The procedure was conducted at 4:01 p.m. Monday near a forest cabin in Merishausen, he said.

The device had never been used before, according to the AP.

Florian Willet, director of Swiss assisted suicide organization The Last Resort, was the only person present when she died, Nitschke said. The woman began the dying process by pushing the button herself.

Prior to her death, a psychiatrist examined the woman and confirmed she was competent to undergo the procedure, according to de Volkskrant.

Nitschke reportedly described the woman's death as a major milestone in the movement to legalize assisted suicide, noting that "humane" drugs that bring about death can be extremely difficult to obtain.

After the prosecutor's office was informed of the assisted suicide by a law firm, law enforcement officials responded to the scene, where they recovered the capsule and took the deceased woman in for an autopsy, police said.

Assisted suicide is legal under Swiss law if the person does so without "external assistance," and anyone who aids the individual in the process does not have "any self-serving motive," according to the Guardian.

Nitschke told the AP that lawyers had advised him it was legal in Switzerland to use the "Sarco" capsule.

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.