Activist arrested after Dutch suicide pod death in Switzerland dies by assisted suicide

Florian Willet, an activist who was present when a woman took her own life in the Dutch-designed Sarco assisted suicide pod in Switzerland, has died from assisted suicide. He was 47 years old. Exit International, an organization committed to letting people choose when to die, announced his death on Sunday. The organization blamed trauma sustained after Willet’s arrest in Switzerland for his decision to take his life.

“To describe Florian is to talk of a man who was thoughtful, caring, funny, and friendly. He was an easy person to be around,” Philip Nitschke, the inventor of the Sarco pod, wrote on Exit International’s website. “But most of all, Florian was kind. Florian was also passionate about a person’s right to choose when to die.”

Willet died in Germany last month. He had help in his suicide from a “specialized organization,” Nitschke told the Volkskrant.

Willet was arrested in Switzerland in September last year after a 64-year-old woman died by assisted suicide in the Sarco pod in Switzerland. He was the only person present. According to Nitschke, Willet was held in pre-trial detention for 70 days, and the prosecution accused him of strangling the woman to death.

According to Nitschke, the time in custody broke Willet. “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.” He sought psychiatric support and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice, but it proved insufficient.

It was no surprise that Willet went with the woman to the Sarco pod in September, Nitschke said. “Florian wanted to make a difference. And he wanted to help a desperately ill woman to get the peaceful death that she was seeking. He thought only of her.” He has now paid for that compassion with his life, the Dutchman said.