Assisted suicide: German government seeks to regulate practice

“We want to set the record straight — everyone has a right to self-determined death.”

With these words, Free Democrat Member of Parliament Katrin Helling-Plahr introduced a cross-party draft bill to the German parliament that would regulate legal assisted suicide for the first time.

The ban on so-called business-like assisted suicide in Germany was lifted almost a year ago by a ruling of the constitutional court. But without legislation to regulate the process, the right has existed “only on paper” for many people, as Helling-Plahr put it on Twitter.

According to the bill, which was introduced by Helling-Plahr along with center-left Social Democrat and medical doctor Karl Lauterbach and Left party MP Petra Sitte, the person willing to die has to want to end his or her life “out of autonomously-formed free will.” They must be able to “weigh the pros and cons on a sufficient basis of assessment in a realistic manner” and “the suicide-willing person must be aware of alternative courses of action to suicide.”

However, under the draft no one should be forced into assisted suicide, a point which is particularly important for physicians. Those seeking to commit suicide should be able to obtain the appropriate medication in Germany without having to go abroad. …

Oh, boy, this is fraught with a large potential problem, to wit,

“Who has really written the request for the death providing potion? What proof is there the request is valid?”

I can think of three scenarios immediately:

1. The person with the greatest need due to unmitigated pain and suffering, very limited capacity to be independent in any capacity and knows there will be no cessation until death—that person has every right to request The End. How doe we know that person did make the actual request or, conversely, doesn’t have a thought in that direction at all?

2. What proof is given that the “in extremis” person even thought of it let alone requested it? Perhaps the “care giver” was more interested in the “end” product than continuing care. Perhaps the inheritor of All needs the inheritance really, really badly and really wants the death defier dead much more quickly than it appears it will occur. They write the request and because they know the death defier they can make it look like that person actually wrote it.

3. the third option: an outsider is tired of the length of time between living and death of the patient. This person writes the request (known or unknown) and it passes legal scrutiny. The person may be operating as an independent person to enable the estate to be opened to the receivers of said estate. What proof is there such a person did or didn’t write such a request?

I am faced with this dilemma but there is no law giving me permission to do this type of painless termination of myself no matter how much pain I am in. I frequently wonder what the point is of continuing to live or what contribution can I make. And yes, I do know of the methods variously used by suiciders. I cannot imagine subjecting anyone I love or who loves me to such a memory.

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