The eco-conservative government had to present to Parliament a draft law on the “right to end his life” without provoking swirls, despite the weight of the Catholic Church in the country.
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After the Benelux and Spain, the deeply Catholic Austria is preparing to become the fifth country of the European Union to authorize assisted suicide. Friday, 19 November, the Eco-Conservative Government had to present to Parliament a bill providing for the introduction “of a right to end its life in a free and autonomous way and to be helped, as appropriate, by a third party. Person “for” people with incurable disease causing death “or those suffering” of a serious and sustainable illness with persistent symptoms that affect them permanently throughout their daily life “.
The text that must enter into force early 2022 is the direct consequence of a decision of the Austrian Constitutional Court. In December 2020, it had censored an article of the Penal Code which planned to punish up to five years in prison anyone who “provides aid” to suicide by considering that it was contrary to the “free principle of free referee “. In recent years, several Austrians had been punished for transporting sick relatives to Switzerland, a country where assisted suicide is proposed by associations to citizens from states where it is always forbidden, such as France and Austria.
It is also with the support of the Swiss Association Dignitas that four Austrians – a man sentenced for providing a weapon to his critically ill wife – had seized the Constitutional Court in 2019. In their censorship, the judges gave until the end of 2021 to the Austrian government to regulate suicide assistance. The text presented on Friday to Parliament thus plans several guards to avoid total liberalization at the beginning of January, 2022. Defended by the Minister of Justice, Ecologist, Alma Zadic, he is the fruit of a Compromised with the Conservatives of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), very close to the Catholic Church, and who had always been in the past opposed to the legalization of euthanasia.
Foolustry guards planned. by law
The bill provides for a review and consulting meeting by two doctors, including at least one specialist in palliative care. Three external persons will then have to attest to the “free and autonomous choice” of the patient. A twelve weeks reflection time, shortened two weeks in the event of a “terminal phase”, is then mandatory. The valid end-of-life directives a year must finally be validated before notary, before they can withdraw the fatal preparation in pharmacy. The patient is therefore free to choose the location and circumstances of the absorption of the preparation.
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