On the occasion of today’s introduction of a cross-party bill to enshrine the living will in law in the German Bundestag, PDF attached, MPs Joachim Stünker (SPD), Michael Kauch (FDP), Dr. Luc Jochimsen (Die Linke) and Jerzy Montag (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen) declared: “Anyone who takes the right to self-determination seriously must grant patients the right to decide for themselves on the initiation and termination of a life-sustaining measure for every phase of their illness. The dignity and right to self-determination of the person in need of help must also be respected during medical treatment. With our draft law, we are giving people more legal certainty, strengthening the rights of those affected and ensuring effective protection of fundamental rights.
Many people fear that at the end of their lives they will be helplessly at the mercy of intensive care medicine that prioritizes physical life support. The question of the extent to which such an order is binding for doctors and caregivers has not yet been sufficiently clarified.
The right to self-determination over one’s own body is part of the core area of human dignity and freedom protected by the constitution. For this reason, every patient with decision-making capacity must give their consent before any medical intervention. A medical intervention without the patient’s consent constitutes bodily harm. The right to self-determination does not end with the onset of incapacity to consent.
Our draft law therefore does not differentiate according to the type and stage of the disease. The patient must be able to decide on the initiation or withdrawal of life-sustaining measures for each phase of the illness. Incidentally, this position also corresponds to that of the National Ethics Council and the German Medical Association.
The bill we are introducing today therefore provides for this,
- that specific and situation-related treatment stipulations in a living will are binding,
- that the patient’s wishes are respected at all stages of an illness and
- that the guardianship court only has to be involved if there is doubt about the patient’s wishes or suspicion of abuse.
However, it is also important that the applicability of an advance directive is checked to see whether it corresponds to the current will. If the patient expresses the will to live, an earlier decision not to initiate or discontinue treatment is not effective.”
The introduction procedure was preceded by an intensive debate in public and in the Bundestag itself. Whether the alternative motions announced, e.g. by Wolfgang Bosbach (CDU), will also be tabled is not known to hpd at the moment.
The bill Stünker, Kauch, Dr. Jochimsen and Montag currently has 205 supporting signatures, PDF attached.
The Federal Chairman of the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD), Dr. Horst Groschopp, explains the legislative procedure that has been initiated:
“We have many years of experience as an advice and filing office for more than 12,000 living wills. We therefore welcome the fact that the German Bundestag wants to enshrine advance care through living wills in law. We estimate that there is currently a great deal of uncertainty and legal uncertainty among patients, authorized representatives and treating physicians regarding the effectiveness of living wills. It is therefore right to create legal certainty now and to strengthen patients’ right to self-determination.
Precisely because this is an instrument determined by individual values and views, it should be left to each individual citizen, in accordance with our Basic Law, to regulate these final matters for themselves after qualified consultation. We therefore support the proposed regulation.
The HVD expressly welcomes the fact that this initiative has been launched on a cross-party basis.
We emphasize that numerous members of religious organizations support the proposed law. And we as an association are proud that our friend Rolf Stöckel, a member of the HVD’s Federal Board and my predecessor in office, is one of the initiators of this legislative initiative.”
