Court lifts ban on suicide aid

LUXEMBOURG: Germany’s highest court yesterday ruled that a 2015 law banning professional assisted suicide was unconstitutional, as it robbed terminally ill patients of “the right to a selfdetermined death”.

Judge Andreas Vosskuhle said the right included “the freedom to take one’s life and seek help doing so”.

The ruling is a major victory for the terminally ill patients, doctors and assisted suicide organisations who brought the case, complaining that the existing law went too far.

Known as Paragraph 217, the 2015 legislation penalised anyone offering assisted suicide as a professional service, whether they accepted payment or not.

It was mainly aimed at barring associations dedicated to supporting patients wanting to end their lives, but also meant medical personnel faced prosecution for prescribing life-terminating drugs.

The legal uncertainty worsened when in 2017 a lower court ruled that officials could not refuse lethal medication in extreme cases, creating confusion among doctors.

The verdict yesterday from the Karlsruhe-based court was closely watched in a fast-ageing country where Catholic and Protestant Churches still exert strong influence, but polls show growing public support for physicianassisted suicide.

It is also a particularly sensitive subject in Germany as the Nazis used what they euphemistically called “euthanasia” to exterminate around 200,000 disabled people.