On August 16, the German Right to Die Society DGHS (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Humanes Sterben) launched an online petition against a new legal prohibition on suicide assistance.
DGHS:
Many people who want to end their lives self-determined with the help of a third party encounter skepticism and ignorance in the search for doctors who lead the suicide. Often there is talk of a legal grey area. This is wrong! The existing legal framework is completely sufficient to ensure assisted suicide in the sense of the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court (February 2020).
A possible legal regulation should therefore – while preserving the freedom of conscience of the suicide companions – above all strengthen the self-determination of the volunteers. In this context, an adaptation of the Narcotics Act is necessary.
As the Federal Constitutional Court affirmed, everyone has the right to end his life with the voluntary help of a third party. Prerequisite for this: The free responsibility and permanence of the wish to die. The reign of the crime also lies exclusively with the person willing to die.
A possible legal regulation should therefore – while preserving the freedom of conscience of the suicide companions – above all strengthen the self-determination of the volunteers. In this context, an adaptation of the Narcotics Act is necessary.
The goal must be to prevent hard suicides and to enable well-considered suicides. Therefore, we reject any form of narrowing of the Federal Constitutional Court ruling and appeal to politicians to do full justice to it within the framework of possible legislation.
Therefore: YES to self-determination at the end of life! NO to a new § 217 StGB.
Germany