In 2015, the German Bundestag banned organized assisted suicide for seriously ill people who are capable of making a decision and no longer wish to live (Section 217 of the German Criminal Code). In spring 2017, the Federal Administrative Court ruled that seriously ill people who are tired of living must be guaranteed access to lethal anaesthetics in exceptional cases. The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices is responsible for this.
However, the Health Minister responsible for the Institute, Jens Spahn, has personally instructed that all applications from seriously ill patients be rejected. He is thus continuing the refusal of his predecessor Hermann Gröhe to implement a supreme court directive. Spahn has already had over 100 applications for the provision of lethal medication to terminally ill patients rejected. The Humanist Association of Germany – Federal Association (HVD) had already sharply criticized this approach in the summer of 2018.
The Cologne Administrative Court has now called on the Federal Ministry of Health in summary proceedings to make its approach to this matter more transparent. As the Tagesspiegel reports today, Spahn’s officials are to release information on a ministerial draft in which they assess the Karlsruhe proceedings on Section 217 of the German Criminal Code. However, according to press reports, Spahn does not want to accept this and has lodged an appeal against it. The Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia will have to decide on the matter.
Erwin Kress, spokesman for the board of the HVD, criticizes: “The obvious suffering of the applicants is being ignored with a light hand. A stance still cherished in some church and political circles that people should not be allowed to end their lives voluntarily under any circumstances is to be strictly defended. It must be seen as particularly malicious that Minister Spahn is allowing the severely suffering applicants to have to endure an agonizing application and assessment procedure, even though he has already ordered their applications to be rejected.”
Bild: Evelin FrerkThe HVD had already called for the harmonization of legislation on assisted suicide in the interests of the population in 2018. This is because the vast majority of Germans are in favor of there being a “right to assisted suicide” in Germany in the event of a serious, incurable illness.
In the opinion of the HVD, a responsible approach to the problem of assisted suicide and a regulation from a single source can be summarized in four points:
- Re-introduction of the legal situation of December 2015, i.e. unpunishable assisted suicide by abolishing Section 217 of the German Criminal Code (StGB)
- Retention of § 216 StGB, i.e. killing on demand, without being able to use this as “killing by omission” for assisted suicide punishment
- Authorization of the dispensing of sodium pentobarbital by physicians willing to assist suicide in accordance with strict due diligence criteria
- Introduction of qualified, open-ended suicide conflict counseling
The HVD will present a legislative proposal on this shortly.
Spahn wants to stick to his line for the time being and await the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court. Its decision on the ban on assisted suicide is scheduled for February 26, 2020. The HVD hopes that the court will restore respect for self-determination and human dignity in the matter of death.
