On December 11, Austria’s 14-member Constitutional Court ruled that a law banning assisted suicide is unconstitutional. The below is based Google’s English translation of the court’s press release. Thank you, Lamar Hankins, for the heads-up.
At the request of several people affected, including two seriously ill people, the Constitutional Court of Austria repealed the provision that makes assisting suicide a criminal offense. Specifically, the phrase “or help him” in Section 78 of the Criminal Code is unconstitutional. It violates the right to self-determination, because this fact forbids any kind of assistance under any circumstances. The repeal will take effect on December 31, 2021.
The constitutionally guaranteed right of the individual to free self-determination can be derived from several fundamental rights guarantees, in particular from the right to private life, the right to life and the principle of equality.
This right to free self-determination includes the right to shape life as well as the right to a dignified death. The right to free self-determination also includes the right of those willing to commit suicide to seek help from a third party who is prepared to do so.
The prohibition of suicide with the help of a third party can represent a particularly intensive interference with the right of the individual to free self-determination.
If the decision to commit suicide is based on the free self-determination of the person concerned, this must be respected by the legislature.
From a fundamental rights point of view, it makes no difference whether the patient rejects life-extending or life-sustaining medical measures within the framework of his treatment sovereignty or the living will in exercising his right to self-determination or whether a suicide wants to end his life with the help of a third party in exercising his right to self-determination. Rather, it is crucial in each case that the respective decision is made on the basis of free self-determination.
If, on the one hand, the patient can decide whether their life will be saved or prolonged through medical treatment, and, on the other hand, under Section 49a of the Physicians Act 1998, even the premature death of a patient is accepted as part of medical treatment, it is not justified to give the dying consent to forbid the help of a third party in the event of suicide and thus deny the right to self-determination without exception.
The Constitutional Court does not overlook the fact that free self-determination is also influenced by diverse social and economic circumstances. Accordingly, the legislature has to take measures to prevent abuse so that the person concerned does not make their decision to commit suicide under the influence of third parties.
Trying [to convince] someone else to commit suicide remains a criminal offense. The decision to kill yourself with the assistance of a third party is only protected under fundamental rights if it is made freely and without any influence. This condition is not met from the outset (fact of “enticing”).
Killing on request is not permitted. In the event of repeal, the killing of a person would be punished as murder or manslaughter at his request.
Wish we had a supreme court as brave as Austria’s!
I’m with you, Bill! This does give me some hope that other countries will follow suit and sometime, probably with a different court here, the U.S. might see the light.