En meningsmåling viser at rundt halvparten av tyskerne foretrekker euthanasi – assistert selvmord – fremfor å bli avhengige av andres pleie når de blir gamle.

En komité i Forbundsdagen vurderer kun å straffe de som tar seg betalt for å hjelpe noen til å dø. Men noen mener at forbudet må gjelde alle – også de som gjør det ut fra barmhjertighet eller andre motiver, – gratis.

The study, commissioned by a foundation for the terminally ill, Deutsche Hospiz Stiftung, found that 51 percent of women and 49 percent of men would consider taking their own lives to avoid depending on help from others.

“This is evidence of the failure of German nursing care policy,” head of the organization Eugen Brysch told Bild daily newspaper.

On Wednesday, the Bundestag legal committee met to discuss changing Germany’s assisted-suicide laws to only punishing people who provided euthanasia as a commercial service.

But Brysch said that the legal foundations surrounding assisted suicide needed to be tighter. By only punishing those paid for aiding suicides, the government was essentially sanctioning free euthanasia services, he said.

“Lawmakers have to take dying out of the yellow pages, even if it is for free,” Brysch told the paper.

DPA/The Local/jcw

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20121212-46733.html#.UMx4NmhpyY8