Ethics Council welcomes next attempt: New law on assisted suicide in the works

The Federal Constitutional Court's ruling on the fundamental right of people to self-determined death poses challenges for the Bundestag. After two bills failed to secure a majority in 2023, parliamentarians are now working on a new draft.

Following the failed attempt to reform the law on assisted suicide in the German Bundestag two years ago, SPD MP Lars Castellucci is working on a new legislative initiative. Castellucci told the "Rheinische Post" newspaper: "I am confident that we will quickly reach a sound revision of the law during this legislative period." He is convinced that, following the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling, lawmakers must create "clear and balanced regulations" on assisted suicide. A working group is currently being formed, and the first meeting has already taken place. The goal is to launch a successful legislative process as soon as possible.

Castellucci continued: "We must respect the decision of people who want to end their lives in a self-determined manner – but at the same time, prevent suicide from appearing normal and thus placing vulnerable people under pressure." The process must be completely reopened during this legislative period – also due to the changed majority situation in Parliament.

"Chances of adoption increased"

The chairman of the German Ethics Council, Helmut Frister, welcomes the members' initiative. "I find it fundamentally positive and sensible that the Bundestag is striving for a regulation on assisted suicide," he told the editorial team. According to Frister, there will be no successor provision for the paragraph overturned by the Federal Constitutional Court this time. "I welcome this waiver both in terms of its substance and because it increases the chances of passing a legal regulation," the legal scholar said.

In 2015, the Bundestag passed a law prohibiting commercial and repeated assisted suicide. In a ruling in February 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court overturned this law. The judges formulated a fundamental right to self-determined death. What this means in concrete terms has not been regulated by law since then. Two draft laws, drafted by politicians from different parties, failed to gain a majority in parliament in 2023.