When and How to Die: Germany Debates Whose Choice It Is
Daniel is one of many Germans who are opting for euthanasia or assisted suicide to end their suffering. Experts and officials in Germany say it could be hundreds, possibly thousands — no one knows for sure.
That’s in part because assisted suicide is a murky legal question in Germany. Killing terminally ill patients directly, even if they request it, is illegal in the country. Prescribing certain barbiturates used for euthanasia in other countries is also illegal in Germany. But prescribing other drugs to terminally ill patients and then letting them ingest or inject those medications is permitted.
Germany’s main medical board overseeing doctors opposes euthanasia, but German courts have backed physicians who prescribe authorized drugs to terminally ill patients seeking to end their lives.
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