Following the “overturning” of the ban on assisted suicide (Section 217 of the German Criminal Code) by the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG), Federal Health Minister Spahn (CDU) is making a new attempt with a “legislative protection concept”: For all people who want to end their lives, legal assistance options for suicide, old-age suicide or even balance suicide due to illness are to be restricted to the narrowest possible extent. This undermines the requirement that “access to voluntary assisted suicide remains open in real terms”, as stated in the BVerfG ruling. Spahn has only invited defenders of the old prohibition law, advocates of a criminal law regulation in a new Section 217 and some participants who are at least skeptical or even opposed to assisted suicide by associations to participate in his proposed legislation. The list is available to the HVD.
The Humanist Association Germany – Federal Association protests against “the scandalous one-sidedness” of its convened advisors with an open letter to Spahn. The letter lists the prominent experts from this group who have now publicly presented new editions of the failed Section 217 of the German Criminal Code. With the exception of Matthias Thöns, the list of thirty individuals and organizations invited by Spahn does not include all those who had successfully sued or taken a stand against Section 217 in Karlsruhe. Instead, the Federal Minister of Health is once again relying on the support of the churches and excluding the humanist-secular spectrum. Thus, as the HVD Federal Association’s protest letter states, “the expertise of all those whose basic views have proven to be clearly constitutional remains unused”.
Erwin Kress, spokesman for the board of the HVD Federal Association, admits: “Of course a politician does not have to hide his ideological coloring in his work. But when he asks a number of institutions and personalities to comment on the consequences of the Karlsruhe ruling on the invalidity of Section 217 of the German Criminal Code, one would think that even with an extremely tendentious selection, at least some opposing positions should be found among them.” However, the emerging results of the consultation counteract the essential element of the Karlsruhe ruling, namely the right of the individual to decide on the end of their own life and to receive organized help for suicide, for example from associations and non-medical assisted suicide companions.
In May of this year, the Humanist Association of Germany – Federal Association was the first organization to present a much-noticed draft for a special law “for the management of assisted suicide and suicide conflicts”(Assisted Suicide Conflict Act) based on its practical experience and in line with its opinions requested twice (2016 and 2017) by the Federal Constitutional Court.
“Practical legal regulations are unavoidable to ensure that the Karlsruhe ruling does not remain just theory,” says Erwin Kress. “The fact that over three quarters of the population do not want to be patronized and, in an emergency, want the right to end their lives in a self-determined manner with the appropriate competent help, must now be implemented by politicians.”
Gita Neumann, HVD Federal Representative for Medical Ethics and Patient Autonomy, is confident: “We are doing everything we can to ensure that this time individual-ethical positions based on the will, rights and dignity of the individual find a majority in parliament. After the sensational defeat at the Federal Constitutional Court, no new Section 217 must be introduced into criminal law as a homicide offense.”
