Austria: “Assisted suicide must remain an exception”
After the submission of the law on the new regulation of euthanasia, the Caritas of the diocese Gurk-Klagenfurt will expand the mobile hospice accompaniment and demand the establishment of a stationary hospice in Carinthia.
The Caritas of the Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt is “relieved” by the existence of a draft law regulating assisted suicide. The ban on advertising and the ban on economic benefits for institutional providers are fundamentally positive, but the present draft lacks the option of independent advice centers.
Promote life to the end
It is important that a further draft law is also available at the same time, in which the clear will of hospice and palliative services is to be expanded. “Ultimately, it is also a binding legal claim,” says Sandriesser, who is also President of the Carinthian State Association for Hospice. He is convinced: “The desire to end one’s own life at short notice is often an appeal, a call for closeness, for pain relief.”
In the announced expansion of hospice and palliative services, he sees an opportunity for the establishment of an inpatient hospice in Carinthia. In addition, Caritas will expand its range of mobile hospice support, announced the Caritas director. Because assisted suicide must remain the exception and assistance to life must be encouraged to the end. Caritas Carinthia excludes participation in assisted suicides in its facilities.
New euthanasia law under review
The government had previously agreed on a new legal regulation of euthanasia, as the previous ban on active euthanasia, according to the Constitutional Court, violated the Austrian constitution. Anyone who wants to make use of assisted suicide should now be able to issue a death will from 2022 – i.e. a written declaration similar to the living will. Access is restricted to permanently seriously ill or terminally ill people. Minors are explicitly excluded. A lethal, fatal drug will be available in pharmacies. At the same time, an expansion of hospice and palliative care was announced.
(cape – gh)