Berlin
Euthanasia trial – prison sentence for doctor
The accused doctor and his lawyer in the Moabit criminal court at the end of February. The doctor has now been sentenced to prison. photo
© Jörg Carstensen/dpa
A doctor gives medication to a woman who has suffered from severe depression for years. The doctor emphasizes that he could not refuse her request for euthanasia. Judges rule differently.
A Berlin doctor has been sentenced to three years in prison in the trial of a controversial euthanasia case. The regional court Berlin found the 74-year-old guilty of manslaughter on Monday. From the judge’s point of view, the 37-year-old woman he helped was unable to form her own free will because of her depression. The doctor had “exceeded the limits of what was permissible,” said judge Mark Sautter. The judgment is not final. The doctor had already announced at the start of the trial that he would appeal if he was convicted.
The veterinary medicine student contacted the doctor at the beginning of June 2021 after the verdict. Almost two weeks later, the doctor gave her the deadly tablets, which she vomited. On July 12, 2021, the doctor gave the 37-year-old an infusion with a deadly drug in a hotel room. According to the verdict, the woman started this herself – and died a short time later.
The public prosecutor’s office had demanded a prison sentence of three years and nine months, and the defense had demanded acquittal. The doctor told the court that he had never doubted the woman’s “freedom of judgment and decision-making.” He saw in her “great emotional distress and determination” to commit violent suicide if necessary. His defense attorney criticizes the fact that there is no legal regulation in his plea.
The former family doctor belongs to a euthanasia organization and was acquitted in an earlier euthanasia trial. The case involved a woman who suffered from chronic intestinal disease. The patient’s wishes must be respected, it said in the ruling in March 2018, which the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) later confirmed.