Assisted suicide will be allowed in Austria. On December 11 the Constitutional Court in Vienna ruled that the current legal ban on assisting suicide violated the right to self-determination. It is also unconstitutional to prohibit any kind of assistance to suicide without exception. On the other hand, killing on demand and inducing another person to commit suicide remains illegal and punishable.
The court also explained that right to free self-determination will include “both the right to shape one’s life and the right to die in dignity”. The repeal of the previous criminal offense will take effect at December 31, 2021. Until then, the Austrian government is advised to draft an appropriate law.
A historic breakthrough?
The court decision was made after four applicants filed a lawsuit: a 56-year-old man suffering from multiple sclerosis and confined to his bed, a healthy 75-year-old man, who wants to be assisted in dying in the event of a terminal illness, an 80-year-old, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and a 66-year-old physician. The physician wants to perform assisted suicide, but fears the consequences under criminal and professional law.
The Austrian Society for a Humane End of Life (ÖGHL) spoke of a historic breakthrough: Austria would be catching up in international comparison, although with some delay. However, many organizations rejected the court’s decision:
Massive criticism from medical professionals
The Austrian Medical Association stated there would be a danger “that elderly and sick people will increasingly come under pressure to justify their right to exist and their will to live.” No physician, President Thomas Szekeres said, should be forced to act against his conscience and contribute to the killing of a human being.
The Austrian Society for Emergency Medicine (ÖGARI) expressed its concern about the decision. Going further, the Austrian Palliative Society (OPG) called for a strict ban on commercial providers. The “Salzburg Doctors’ Forum for Life” spoke of a figurative dam breach of the dam, “which could also have far-reaching and long-term consequences in Austria”.
“Killing is not a therapeutic option”
Stephanie Merckens from the Institute for Marriage and Family (IEF) said: “Until now, you could count on not being legally killed directly in Austria. Now we have been served carte blanche to help each other kill ourselves. What a topsy-turvy world. This decision, however, reflects a legal understanding that turns the origin and meaning of human rights into their opposite. It is not good to help someone to commit suicide. That is quite different from assisting someone during their dying process.”
Susanne Kummer from the Institute for Medical Anthropology and Bioethics (IMABE) added: “From the point of view of medical ethics, this must be countered: There is a right that dying should not be unnecessarily prolonged. And an urgent duty that physicians be trained in palliative care nationwide. However, killing is not a therapeutic option.”
Catholics are raising their voices
“Until now, every person in Austria has been able to assume that his or her life is considered unconditionally valuable – until natural death”, explained Archbishop Franz Lackner, president of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference. But with this decision, the court had removed an essential basis from this common view. The Archbishop promised, the Church will now become even more involved both in hospice work and pain treatment. But also in accompanying people in life crises. This also applies to suicide prevention.
Matthias Tschirf from the Working Group of Catholic Associations (AKV) warned of a commercialization of dying. No one should be pushed or motivated to euthanasia by liberalization of the legal situation, said the AKV president: “The ban on euthanasia has a preventive protective function. It signals to every person tired of life without exception: No matter how understandable his situation is, no matter how suffering he feels: Every life is worth protecting.”
“There is no right to kill innocent human life”
Alfred Trendl of the Catholic Family Association of Austria (KFÖ) said: “With this decision the end of life becomes touchable.” It would now be up to society to “do everything now to counter the foreseeable great pressure on old, disabled or terminally ill people not to want to be a burden on anyone”.
The historian Johannes Moravitz from the Johannes-Messner-Gesellschaft analysed the court’s decision and concluded: “There is no right to kill innocent human life, whether foreign or one’s own. Governments cannot not decide which side they are on in this matter. For those, who do not decide and those, who do not act have already decided.”
A call to action
Alexander Tschugguel from the Boniface Institute called the Austrian pro-life movement out to pray and to act politically: “This means quite clearly that we as pro-lifers must urge the decision-makers to be vocal and quite forceful in getting a law on the way that continues to prohibit assisted suicide. That can be done simply by making a law with constitutional status.”
The pro-life initiative “Austria wants to live” is demanding a ban of euthanasia in the Austrian constitution. So far they have released several videos and gathered over 4,000 people through a petition. But it will need a lot more effort and public attention to the pro-life cause if they want to prevent a euthanasia law.
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