BERLIN, June 13, 2023 – A new bill will be presented at the Federal Press Conference this morning, Tuesday, June 13, which combines the two parliamentary legislative initiatives led by Katrin Helling-Plahr (FDP) on the one hand and Renate Künast (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) on the other into a single bill. This is outside of criminal law and provides for state-funded counseling centers nationwide. The Humanist Association of Germany (HVD) had already recommended this in spring 2020 in its draft bill on the new regulation of assisted suicide.
The new liberal draft law also follows the demands of the HVD in other respects: people seeking help who are affected by suicidal thoughts or wishes to die should be supported in exercising their right to a self-determined end of life in an open-ended manner and, if necessary, strengthened in their decision-making process. Non-incapacitating information about alternatives is part of the mandatory interdisciplinary consultation. This does not apply if treating physicians are prepared to provide assisted suicide due to a serious or incurable medical condition.
“We expressly welcome the merger of the two parliamentary legislative initiatives,” says Erwin Kress, spokesperson for the Federal Board of the Humanist Association of Germany. “This increases the chances that a liberal and – above all – constitutional law on the new regulation of assisted suicide will be passed. In its ruling in February 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court strengthened the right to self-determination over the end of one’s own life and confirmed a fundamental right to assisted suicide, which must also be guaranteed in practice. Legislators must finally take this into account. A new unconstitutional Section 217, which patronizes people capable of voluntary self-determination by means of criminal law, must be prevented at all costs!”
Kress therefore urgently recommends that members of the German Bundestag vote against the second draft bill by a group of MPs led by parliamentarian Lars Castellucci (SPD), which has so far been supported primarily by members of the CDU/CSU. Under a new Section 217 of the Criminal Code, this bill would place the decision to commit suicide under the general suspicion of a lack of free will. “Measured against the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court from 2020, this draft must be classified as unconstitutional,” emphasizes Kress. “The members of the Bundestag must not allow themselves to be misled here and should distinguish between the legitimate concern to procedurally safeguard the protection of life and unconstitutional paternalism by means of criminal law.”
