Dignitas staff busy in new accommodation

A long search for a new home after being evicted from its former premises has ended happily for Switzerland’s best known suicide group, Dignitas. Its new location is a business park in the village of Schwerzenbach, near Zurich. Its neighbour is the nation’s largest brothel. Business is brisk: so far this year, 23 people have died in its new location. The local municipality battled to keep Dignitas out, as it did not want the country’s biggest sex club and the largest death factory side-by-side. However, says a spokesman for the Schwerzenbach council, Karl Rütsche, "on a positive note, everyone now knows where Schwerzenbach is. And as far as I know, there have never been any complaints from any of the people living here." The activities of Dignatas are inobtrusive, as well. "We estimate about 200 people a year will kill themselves there," says Mr Rütsche, "but we won’t notice anything if we don’t have to register the deaths. We don’t have any hotels. I gather that isn’t a problem because Dignitas’s customers usually arrive on the day and go straight to the company’s offices." ~  Observer
(UK), Mar 16

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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