Assistierter Suizid

The reasoning behind the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling on assisted suicide is analysed and its long-term significance highlighted in this essay. Two weaknesses in the judgment (the blurring of the narrow limits of »autonomous self-determination« and the social negativity of every suicide) do not detract from its strength in adhering to the ideological/ethical equidistance of the legal order. For whether suicide corresponds to or contradicts the dignity of being human is only possible to determine on the basis of a content-filled view of the destiny given to man, something the state does not have at its disposal. It only has the certainty of existence personally shared by its citizens. Such a certainty is the Christian certainty (expressed in the first person singular) in which suicide cannot be desired or approved, nor can help be offered, although it can be granted in special cases upon unavoidable request. Action within the church must contribute to ensuring that assisted suicide in particular does not become a »social matter of course« and also ensure that appropriate proposals are made for new regulations in keeping with the constitution.