Expanding horizons

Two bills passed on assisted suicide and on improved palliative care

In November 2015, the “Deutsche Bundestag” (German parliament) passed a bill on the reorganisation of assisted suicide, which shall be embodied in the penal code. Any businesslike aiding and abetting of suicide shall be punished in the future. “Businesslike” is defined as an activity of individuals, organisations or associations which is carried out independently and with the intention of repetition regardless of whether there is an intention of gaining any profit or any other benefit. Associations for assisted suicide are definitively forbidden by the bill. Relatives and other close persons shall not be punished for assisted suicide. The assessment of repeated assisted suicide by physicians, however, remains unclear. (Source: http://www.haufe.de/recht/familien-erbrecht/bundestag-hat-neuregelung-zur-sterbehilfe-beschlossen_220_327380.html; last call 12/11/2015)

Simultaneously with the reorganization of assisted suicide, the “Deutsche Bundestag” passed a bill on hospice and palliative care, which comprises a large number of improvements on the field of hospice and palliative care such as out-patient services, hospice work in nursing homes, and a strengthening of hospice culture and palliative care in clinical medicine. The academy at Johannes-Hospiz will offer a lecture on this issue in autumn 2016. A first balance sheet shall be drawn up by pointing out once more the important regulations of the bill, by assessing them critically, and by turning the prospect to the future.