The controversial world of assisted suicides is reeling today following the announcement that a British man inadvertently booked himself into a clinic in Switzerland, mistaking it for a hotel.
The unnamed man had been on a business trip and had advised his wife that he had driven to a "delightful looking hotel" and was going to check in for the evening.
Unfortunately it became clear to the wife of the deceased that the hotel was in fact the Dignitas clinic, outside Zurich.
The wife had not heard from her husband in the evening, however the next morning, her credit card company had called to query the €4,000 hotel bill which had been charged to their account.
On calling the "hotel", it became very clear to all that a disaster had happened.
"I kept asking them to go and knock on his door" she described, "but they kept saying that there was very little point". "Then they explained who they were and I realised what he had done".
A spokesman for the clinic described how the mistake had happened. "On occasion, someone seeking assisted termination will like to pretend that they are just staying in a hotel for the night. So we play along as part of the service. In hindsight, we now see how this was an accident waiting to happen. Whilst this is of little help now, in retrospect, his ordering and paying for a wakeup call and breakfast for the next morning should have alerted our staff to the problem".