Tax Exempt Assisted Suicide
The Sarco pod.
A Swiss nonprofit called Exit International has suspended operations while the Swiss government investigates the organization’s first ever use of the Sarco Pod to help a 64-year-old American woman end her life. The Sarco Capsule looks like a mini sleep chamber or a one-person spaceship from a 1970-ish space odyssey movie. According to EI’s statement, the tired American woman voluntarily lay down inside, buckled up from the inside and then pushed a button on the inner roof releasing a lethal mist. Perhaps after a brief reflection on her life and a sigh of relief. And then she slept into eternity, finally free from this world and all its unbearable pain to her. Assisted suicide has been legal for a long time in Switzerland, but the Sarco is a new device that had not been previously approved by Swiss authorities. Here is the organization’s sad and antiseptic statement issued with its participating affiliate nonprofit called The Last Resort:
On 23 September 2024, the 3D-printed Sarco capsule was used at a private forest retreat in the Canton Schaffhausen in Switzerland. The user was a 64-year-old, seriously ill woman from the American mid-west (who we shall call ‘Ann’). Her death was caused by nitrogen hypoxia. Ann acted voluntarily. She had explained and confirmed beforehand that she wished to die for a long time and would be acting voluntarily to end her own life in the Sarco. She entered the capsule voluntarily and unaided. Ann pushed the button that activated the nitrogen voluntarily and unaided. Dr. Florian Willet was the only person present at her death. Florian was arrested on site and remains in pre-trial detention in Schaffhausen.
Ann entered the Sarco at around 15.53. She pushed the button at 15.54:45. At around the same time Federal Council member, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider was speaking in the Swiss Parliament. Only after the Sarco was used was it learned that Ms. Baume-Schneider had addressed the issue. The timing was a pure coincidence and not our intention. As of Monday 23 September, ~371 people were in the process of applying to use the Sarco in Switzerland. Applications were suspended on Tuesday 24 September. The process will remain suspended until the criminal investigation into the use of Sarco in Switzerland is concluded.
The Last Resort and Exit International maintain that no laws were broken and that the first use of the Sarco was lawful. Ann had mental capacity, she acted voluntarily and she did the action that brought about her death by herself. There were no selfish motives (no fees were charged, no one obtained a personal benefit etc.). There exists proof for all of this.
Before the use of the Sarco, extensive legal advice over a period of years had been taken. We are confident that the criminal investigation will conclude that no one is guilty of a crime. Dr. Philip Nitschke and Dr. Fiona Stewart have informed the public prosecutor’s office of Schaffhausen in writing that they are available to be questioned in Switzerland. The Last Resort was established as a Swiss association to enable people to have access to the means of an elective, peaceful, non-drug death that is free of charge (except for ~CHF18 which is the cost of the required nitrogen).
Exit International is based in Zurich and Geneva. It has no American presence, but it states quite candidly that American donors can contribute to its efforts via Exit Generation, a (c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Bellingham, Washington. There is no data on GuideStar or ProPublica about Exit Generation, and Exit Generation has no website presence that I could find. Just an online portal through which donations can be made to Exit International. Exit Generation looks to be an integral part of Exit International.
Professor Taimie Bryant has written an excellent primer on what she calls “Aid-in-Dying Nonprofits,” for readers who want to know the U.S. law. I am not sure the law is enough to respond to the complexity that wishes for and welcomes death like a long awaited permanent vacation. Bryant explains why Exit International is ineligible for (c)(3) status in the United States. Assisted suicide is illegal in most states and there is even a federal statute emphasizing that federal subsidies may not be used to support assisted suicide. The Service relied on that statute recently to deny tax exemption to an assisted suicide organization even though the organization’s activities were permissible under state law. If the purpose is insufficient for tax exemption, donations to such an organization are not deductible. But by use of an apparent “friends of” organization, Americans can donate to a foreign assisted suicide organization and get a tax deduction. I am not judging.
Assisted suicide is legal in 9 states and the District of Columbia, but the federal law mentioned above precludes tax exemption. Oregon is the leading U.S. jurisdiction for assisted suicide. Compassion and Choice is the leading assisted suicide organization in Oregon. It’s also a tax exempt (c)(3). It educates about and advocates for changes in assisted suicide laws.
Technically, Compassion and Choice is prohibited from physically helping someone commit suicide. Doing so would violate Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and the laws of every other state that allows assisted suicide. Those laws generally prohibit anybody but a physician from helping someone die. An organization’s actual physical assistance – giving the lethal dose to the person wanting to die — would defeat tax exemption. But according to an NIH study on the role of nonprofits in assisted suicide, Compassion and Choice does everything except give the person the “peaceful pill.” In some instances staffers are present at the passing and sometimes staffers actually mix the proverbial Kool aide, though probably at another location. In fact, the NIH reports that Compassion and Choice does almost as much as Exit International. Both organizations get to the same result.
darryll k. jones