May 2001 - Nr. 5
German Doctors Criticize Dutch Euthanasia Law
TWIG - German physicians and political leaders voiced strong opposition to the Dutch Senate’s decision Tuesday (April 12) to legalize assisted suicide and some forms of active euthanasia. "Doctors should help dying patients get through the process, not cut it short," said Frank Ulrich Montgomery, president of the Marburger Bund, a physicians’ organization. Many German doctors share the view that pain management, not mercy killing, is the best way to help patients who suffer from incurable diseases. According to cancer specialist Rudolf Henke, Germany is ahead of the Netherlands in developing methods for relieving pain and providing hospice care for the terminally ill. If anything, he said, doctors need to become more liberal in offering patients pain-reducing drugs. He sees no indication that physicians’ attitudes toward assisted suicide could change. "I am in favour of active care of the dying, so that people are not left alone and without consolation," agreed Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse. But doctors should not be burdened with the responsibility, Thierse said, of "being allowed to kill or having to kill."
