Switzerland allows for voluntary assisted suicide. Still, when Dr. Philip Nitschke, a man called “Dr. Death,” created the suicide pod, a 3D printed capsule designed to put people to sleep before suffocating them with nitrogen gas, it was met with plenty of concern. After a 64-year-old American citizen used the pod for the first time in September 2024, that concern turned into controversy and then a criminal investigation.
Forensic specialists found strangulation marks on the woman’s neck and suspected that her death may have been an intentional homicide. Dr. Florian Willet, the only other person who bore witness to her last moments, turned himself into authorities for questioning. While law enforcement never charged him with a crime, they held him in a pretrial detention for 70 days. Just months after his unexpected release, Willet also died by suicide.
Willet died by assisted suicide in Germany.
Nitschke confirmed Willet’s death during an interview with the BBC, stating that the 47-year-old died by assisted suicide in Germany. In another statement, Nitschke claimed that Willet suffered from psychological trauma after his arrest and detainment in relation to the American woman’s death.
“In the final months of his life, Dr. Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should,” he said. Nitschke said Willet came out of his detainment 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,” Nitschke continued The Telegraph reports.
‘Florian was also passionate about a person’s right to choose when to die,’ Nitschke said.
Nitschke claimed Willet was admitted to a psychiatric hospital on two occasions before he ultimately died by suicide on May 5, 2025. He utilized the help of a specialized organization to carry out his plans. The methods that were used to end his life are unknown. “To describe Florian is to talk of a man who was thoughtful, caring, funny, and friendly. He was an easy person to be around,” Nitschke said. “But most of all, Florian was kind. Florian was also passionate about a person’s right to choose when to die.”
Willet fell from a window before he died by assisted suicide.
Nitschke said that in his final months, Willet’s spirit was broken. He knew and believed he had done nothing wrong, legally or morally. But his “belief in the rule of law in Switzerland was in tatters.” Prior to his death on May 5, Willet fell from a third floor window, according to the BBC. After the fall, he required surgery and needed to be cared for by a full psychiatric team.
Willet had a long history with suicide.
Willet’s passion for the right to end one’s own life stemmed from his childhood. “By the age of 5 I took my own dying by suicide into consideration,” Willet said in an interview before his arrest, according to The Telegraph.
He shared that his father died by suicide when Willet was 14 years old. He said that he was “completely fine” with his dad’s decision. “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.”
