German court to make key ruling on assisted suicide

GERMANY’S highest court will decide on Wednesday whether a 2015 law banning professional assisted suicide goes too far, with critics saying it robs terminally ill patients of the right to determine their own death.

The judges’ verdict will be closely watched in a fast-aging country where the Catholic Church still exerts 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.

In its current form, the so-called Paragraph 217 law penalizes anyone offering assisted suicide as a commercial service, whether they accept payment or not.

But a 2017 court ruling in Leipzig found that in extreme cases, the authorities could not refuse life-ending medication, creating confusion among physicians.

Six plaintiffs, made up of terminally ill patients, doctors, and assisted suicide associations, asked the Federal Constitutional Court last year to overturn Paragraph 217.

“The right to live does not constitute an obligation to live,” plaintiff Wolfgang Putz told judges during one of the hearings at the Karlsruhe-based court.

Presiding judge Andreas Vosskuhle indicated last year that Paragraph 217 would likely be amended. - Right to dignity At the heart of the debate is the plaintiffs’ argument that Germany’s Basic Law constitution guarantees personal freedom and dignity, which they believe includes the right to a selfdetermined death.

For seriously ill patients who have chosen to end their life, the existing legislation “makes it almost impossible to carry out that decision in a dignified manner,” said Christoph Knauer, who represents two of the plaintiffs.