The Swiss suicide charity Dignitas has been forced to reinvent its assisted death operation after losing its lease on the apartment in a Zurich suburb where hundreds of people had gone to die.
Other residents in the building had complained about having to use the same elevator as "customers" going up to the third floor flat, and dead bodies being taken down to ambulances or hearses parked below.
Dignitas had hoped to book a suite of hotel rooms to carry out the assisted deaths but withdrew when the Association of Zurich Hoteliers threatened legal action if clients checked in to die. Use of their former premises in an industrial area was also denied them by local authorities.
With nowhere to turn, the group has been reduced to offering its killing service in rental vans where clients are given a concoction of chemicals which they voluntarily drank – which means there is no possibility of prosecution under Swiss law.
Assisted suicide, where the patient carries out the final act himself, is legal in Switzerland while active euthanasia, or deliberate killing to end suffering, is not.
The organization intends to continue offering mobile suicide services until it finds a permanent base.
Though Dignitas founder Ludwig Minelli said he decided to use car parks because of the overwhelming demand for his service, the fact that no one wants them in their neighborhood should give a clear message that many groups and individuals find their operation degrading and want it stopped.
Swiss politicians are worried by the sordid image evoked by the operation and the possibility of Switzerland becoming the preferred destination for "death tourism" because of the growing number of foreigners, especially Germans, who travel to Switzerland for this purpose.
Eugen Brysch, director of the German Hospice Foundation, described the car park operation as "disgusting" and said this latest move showed that Dignitas was "determined to make a business out of human suffering with their mad ideas".
