The urns were discovered accidentally by divers from a rescue service on Lake Zurich who were looking for a sunshade that had broken off one of their boats. After retrieving 13 urns, they notified the Environment Agency. Posted on 04/28/2010 1:37:47 PM PDT by NYer
ZURICH, April 28, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Local authorities in Zurich are asking questions about the assisted suicide facility Dignitas, after 300 urns containing human ashes were found in Lake Zurich this week. The urns bear the logo of the Nordheim crematorium, which is used by Dignitas.
The Daily Telegraph quoted Roman Ruetz, a police diver, who said, “After 50 we stopped counting. They lay there in a big heap.”
The urns were discovered accidentally by divers from a rescue service on Lake Zurich who were looking for a sunshade that had broken off one of their boats. After retrieving 13 urns, they notified the Environment Agency.
The Swiss Environment Agency has filed a criminal complaint against “unknown persons for disturbance of the dead.” Wolfgang Bollack said, “The retrieved urns are being kept in a place respecting their dignity.”
Police spokesman Stefan Oberlin said, “We believe they came from the Zürich Oberland as it says on the urns – which is where Dignitas is based.”
Former Dignitas employee Soraya Wernli, told media that dumping urns into Lake Zurich was a standard procedure of the facility. She said that Dignitas director Ludwig Minelli has put at least 300 urns into the lake himself, but “later asked his daughter and another member of staff to do it.” Minelli has refused to comment.
It is illegal in Switzerland to dispose of a large number of urns containing human remains without a commercial license, a criminal offense that carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.
The discovery has garnered much press coverage in the UK after it was revealed that as many as 115 British people have gone to Dignitas to commit suicide. The euthanasia and assisted suicide lobby has capitalised on the number, arguing that the facility’s popularity indicates a need for legalization in Britain.
The Daily Mail quoted Lesley Close, whose brother John took his own life at Dignitas in 2003, who said, “This underlines the need for change in British law on the subject of assisted suicide.
“We should be absolutely certain what happens to the remains of our loved ones after they are dead. We need our own laws.”
Others, however, have questioned what the find says about Dignitas’ treatment of the dead.
Nicolas Mori, a spokesman for the Zurich church, said: “If burials on the water are conducted on a commercial basis and any promised ceremony is not carried out – that is just completely unacceptable.
“It is like getting rid of the rubbish, just getting it out of sight and out of mind, and we condemn it totally.”
Conservative bioethicist Wesley Smith questioned the outrage directed at the alleged urn-dumping activities of Dignitas. “So, facilitating the suicides of these people is perfectly fine, but burying them wrongly – that gets Minelli in trouble!” he lamented. “The word irony fails to adequately characterize the situation."
“Assisted suicide advocates often claim the mantle of compassion – as Minelli often has. But as with Kevorkian, that is often a mask for indifference and abandonment.
Dead people should not go swimming.
Weirdos. Why travel to another country to kill yourself. Doesn't Britain have any buildings you can jump off, or trains you can step in front of?
Hell, just go to a local soccer game and root for the visiting team!
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If someone harbors a callous disregard for life, why should they respect the remains?
I dunno, they were probably pretty darn peaceful at the bottom of that there lake.
Also, I got a kick out of police divers looking for a lost sunshade. 18 years ago on Lake Havasu I dropped my sunglasses; can I get a little help here or what?
mlocher wrote:
Dead people should not go swimming.
Trust me, I won’t go swimming after I die.
I don’t want my fine body to get bloated!
:-)
Tall buildings and trains are not a guaranteed way to die. Hit a tree on the way down from the roof and become paralyzed, unable to finish the deed, imprisoned in the mostly dead body.
Also buildings and trains and other similar methods can be used quickly, on impulse, in a bout of depression. However it takes much longer to travel to Switzerland, and once there the personnel will talk to the applicant. More chances to change his mind.
Because the Swiss have a sweet settup with people trained to talk you into the final act? I like the futball angle though. Shoot, just go into any mosk and say Muhammend is a bedwetter! Or draw a picture of Muhammed!! Instant fatwa!
It’s a big pretty lake, I bet a LOT of people’s ashes have been scattered there. Now why the facility was dumping these ashes rather than giving them to next of kin is an important question, but the whole “environmental impact” thing is just silly.
Why should there be any dignity for their remains? They WANTED death. They wanted their souls to be rid of their bodies. Why should it matter what becomes of their bodies other than being recycled into bleu cheese?
Any chance there’s a long list of liberals on that list.
Not long enough...
Well, the police divers are urning their pay.
True, true, true.
But did all those assisted suicide nut-wads opt for cremation? Did not any of them opt for a normal burial?
I guess not. As far as I’m concerned, cremation is a desecration to your earthly remains. It’s un-Christian.
So - in a sense - it wouldn’t totally surprize me that any fool who would commit suicide would also allow his body to be burned to ashes and then tossed in a lake.
.
Horrible.
Where were the families???
If you are going to go to so much trouble for something you obviously don’t care too much about, why wouldn’t you just dump the ashes and re-use those urns?
Freegards, thanks for all the pings
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