“No more time to lose”
MEPs want new rules on euthanasia
03/22/2022, 5:05 p.m
Two years ago, the Federal Constitutional Court overturned the ban on commercial euthanasia due to a legal loophole. For those affected, however, the situation is still not clear. A group of MPs is now campaigning for more legal certainty and a broad range of advice.
In the debate about euthanasia in Germany, a group of deputies in the Bundestag is again pushing for new regulations outside of criminal law. Co-initiator Katrin Helling-Plahr said: “People who want to die independently finally need legal certainty.” They need nationwide low-threshold counseling services and a transparent way of also being able to obtain medication for suicide. More than two years after a constitutional court ruling, there was no more time to lose.
The initiative is intended to “legally secure the right to a self-determined death and make it clear that assisting suicide is possible without punishment,” as the draft says. In addition to Helling-Plahr, the initiators are the MPs Otto Fricke from the FDP, Petra Sitte from the left and SPD politician Helge Lindh.
It is specifically planned that a wide range of advisory services will be secured. Doctors should then be allowed to prescribe drugs for the purpose of suicide if they are “convinced of the permanence and inner strength of the wish to die”. As a rule, at least ten days should have passed since the consultation. In essence, the proposals had already been presented before the federal elections. They are now to be introduced again in the new electoral period.
The background is a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court. Two years ago, it overturned a ban on commercial euthanasia that had existed since 2015 because it violated the individual’s right to self-determined dying. “Business-like” has nothing to do with money, but means “designed to be repeated”. The judgment opens a door for organized offers – but also with the possibility of regulation such as advisory duties or waiting periods.
In January, another cross-party group of MPs presented a draft. According to this, the commercial promotion of suicide should be punished as a matter of principle – but with one exception for adults: In order to determine the free decision without internal and external pressure, two examinations by a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy should usually be carried out at intervals of three months and a comprehensive open-ended consultation.