GERMANY
Contradictions in the Church's view on suicide and assisted suicide

 

Response to: «Evangelische Theologen für assistierten professionellen Suizid» ("Protestant theologians in favour of professional suicide assistance" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 10 January 2021); 
abbreviated version; a full version of this article has been published in German on 8 February 2021
https://hpd.de/artikel/evangelische-theologen-fuer-assistierten-suizid-18971

 

by Dr. Dr. Florian Willet, spokesperson for "DIGNITAS – To live with dignity – To die with dignity (German section) e.V." in Hannover, Germany (abbr: “DIGNITAS-Deutschland”).

In the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" the church representatives Reiner Anselm, Isolde Karle, and Ulrich Lilie recently seemed to speak out in favour of opening church-owned institutions to assisted suicide. That would have been gratifying, had they not ended up contradicting themselves: Calling for the withdrawal of the legal basis for professional suicide assistance, right after pleading for the professional organisation of the same by church-related institutions, is a blatant contradiction.

Interpretations of suicide out of touch with reality

When the Federal Constitutional Court, on 26 February 2020, declared Section 217 of the German Penal Code (StGB), which criminalised repeated and hence professional suicide assistance in Germany, unconstitutional and void, it did not give the German Bundestag any mandate to try to legislate again. In the event that it does try, the Court ruling has set clear limits. Thus, everything may remain as humanely liberal as it has been since the judges' ruling.

Apparently, theological circles claim that suicide is being heroized to a great extent. One would be happy indeed to see them explain this to the many thousands who die lonely and in a cruel manner in Germany every year, on ropes or on train tracks!

In view of the horrendous number of lonely suicides, and the much higher number of suicide attempts which fail with dire consequences, speaking of heroism is pure cynicism. There are countless affirmative sayings that life is a test, that suffering is part of it, that one must show strength and not let it get one down, and that one must never give up, even at the cost of severe pain. Death is much less often glorified than life, with all its hardships and inhumanities.

Christians like to say that only God should decide on the end of life. Their God, of course. Decide on the end of life of everyone, including Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists and all other members of society. This is an attack on religious freedom, if not an implicit declaration of war against people of other faiths and beliefs.

Social progress vs. Christian dogmas

In the course of two thousand darkly ideological years, almost every significant advance in humanity was achieved against the opposition of religious dogma, Christian in particular, with courageous people breaking church commandments and thus giving others the courage to do likewise. The Christian churches will have to give up their hostile attitude against self-determination regarding one’s own end in life, just like against divorce, homosexuality, abortion, and much more. This immediately raises the question of why the state and society should not abandon the churches altogether.

There is no indication that assisted suicide will become the “social norm”, but it would not be a “horror scenario” either. In a liberal society, it is not technocrats or moral ideologists who decide what will ultimately become empirical normality, but the accumulation of everyone’s self-determined decisions. Planned economies and autocrats plan social developments from the end and force people to comply with what is necessary for the plans to be fulfilled. Liberals, on the other hand, let themselves be surprised by the result to which individual self-determination adds up in the end.

Removing taboos instead of compulsory counselling

Some demand that individuals who wish to end their lives undergo compulsory counselling and a medical examination to determine their “suitability“. But those who have never liked to be submitted to evaluation by others uninvited will not do a personality check at the end of their life either. Compulsory counselling in the most fundamental and self-evident matter of self-determination, the most sensitive of all matters of freedom, may even be perceived as the greatest of humiliations. Counselling requires bringing inspiring perspectives from all worldviews to a person. If this were left to church pastors and Christian chaplains, one-sided ideological chants from the echo chamber of the Christian worldview would have to be expected.

This is precisely what speaks against the involvement of churches in assisted suicide. Christian morality has no legitimised authority over people of other faiths who have either submitted to other authorities or think for themselves. Medical doctors, by the way, already carry more than enough workload and responsibility. To burden them with even more is irresponsible. Adult citizens can be assumed to be freely self-responsible by default. Doctors do not have to actively judge them. Only if there are indications that a person is not freely self-responsible does a doctor have to switch from passive observation to evaluation.

In fact, self-determination is always at risk. Organisations providing professional suicide assistance have extensive experience with people approaching them and telling them that they would have to expect opposition and reproaches if, within their family, they expressed their desire to end their own life; that they cannot talk to anyone without taboos, that they feel the risk of stigmatisation and exclusion, and that they suffer considerably as a result. This is where a lot of silent suffering takes place of people in need of help. The fear of morally outraging relatives or even damaging the family's reputation by ending one’s life through suicide weighs heavily on many very old and seriously ill individuals who thus find themselves in a dilemma. People need to be helped there. Not to be imposed compulsory counselling.

 

 

 

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