“Assisted suicide must remain unpunishable as before. Members of the Bundestag should finally start to take the will of the majority of the population seriously instead of undermining the right to self-determination at the end of life with amateurish laws.” Erwin Kress, Vice President of the Humanist Association of Germany and spokesperson on the subject of autonomy at the end of life, said this on Wednesday morning with regard to a current legal opinion by the Scientific Service of the German Bundestag. The report, commissioned by Bundestag member Katja Keul (Alliance 90/The Greens), points to constitutionally questionable shortcomings in three of the four draft laws submitted to date. Erwin Kress described MP Keul’s initiative as a “wise and prudent step that advances the ongoing discussions constructively and in the interests of people’s right to self-determination in Germany.” The legal opinion that has now been presented expresses clear constitutional doubts about three of the proposed bills. According to the expert opinion, two of the bills do not comply with the Basic Law’s requirement of certainty. The expert opinion expresses “constitutional concerns with regard to federal legislative competence” in relation to the bill submitted by MPs Renate Künast (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) and Petra Sitte (DIE LINKE). The Bundestag would not be able to repeal professional medical regulations issued by state medical associations that prohibit assisted suicide. On the other hand, a motion tabled alongside the bills by Katja Keul, Brigitte Zypries (SPD) and other members of the Bundestag advocates not creating any new criminal offenses. Erwin Kress commented: “The legal opinion of the Scientific Service confirms what we have long and repeatedly criticized: The majority of members of the Bundestag want to stick their heads through the wall on this issue. I therefore expect that the report will help to finally bring some much-needed order to this debate.” Kress emphasized that so-called commercial and organized assisted suicide must also remain exempt from punishment if politicians really want to do justice to the complexity of possible life situations of people affected by dying wishes. “From a humanist perspective, only a ban on advertising for such services and commercially oriented, i.e. profit-oriented, euthanasia is justifiable. Under no circumstances should ill-conceived regulations be passed by the legislator, which then have to be corrected by the Federal Constitutional Court in a laborious and lengthy process,” continued Kress. The creation of uncertainty among patients, relatives or doctors, which results in the avoidable prolongation of human suffering, is unacceptable. In addition to the ban on commercial assisted suicide and advertising for assisted suicide, Kress described the lifting of the guarantor obligation for suicides that people carry out voluntarily and after sufficient time for reflection as a sensible option for strengthening the right to self-determination, which could be specified in criminal law. “A suitable legal framework should be created here that respects the well-considered and demonstrably free decision of individuals,” said Kress.
He also called on members of the Bundestag to strengthen the right to self-determination at the end of life by improving suicide prevention in the form of regulations on the establishment of neutral counseling centers. “If people, whether terminally ill and suffering or just one of the two, feel a wish to die, this must of course be taken seriously. But just as the heroization of suicide must be rejected, it must not be made taboo. The creation of qualified suicide counseling centers would be an important step towards reducing the number of preventable suicides.”
On the topic: Humanist positions and arguments on the debate about assisted suicide
The right to self-determination is a central humanist value – right up to the end of life. In particular, the issue of assisted suicide is at the center of the current political and social debate. High-profile representatives of the Humanist Association of Germany have taken a stand on this issue in a position brochure and submitted their own proposals. These include not only – under certain conditions – the controlled provision of medical assistance in dying, but also the introduction of qualified suicide counseling to prevent suicides.
Alliance for self-determination until the end of life
In response to efforts to criminalize assisted suicide, the Alliance for Self-Determination at the End of Life was formed in March 2014. It opposes any tightening of the current legal situation. Among other things, the alliance presented 10 guiding principles against a ban on assisted suicide in Germany.
