Berlin
Twin shot dead in the womb – suspended sentences
Official signs from the Berlin Regional Court and the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office. Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In another trial at the regional court in the capital, a former chief physician was sentenced to one year and seven months on probation, and a senior senior physician was also given a year and four months on probation.
For two Berlin gynecologists who killed a severely damaged child with potassium chloride during a twin birth, the sentences remain suspended.
In another trial at the capital’s regional court on Thursday, a former chief physician was sentenced to one year and seven months’ probation, and a senior senior physician was given one year and four months’ probation. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) had already confirmed the guilty verdict against the doctors for joint manslaughter in a less serious case in November 2020.
With the current decision, the 21st large criminal division of the regional court reduced the penalties against the doctors somewhat. In the first verdict in November 2019, the 75-year-old former chief physician and the 60-year-old senior physician were given suspended sentences of one year and nine months and one and a half years, respectively.
In this case, one child was born healthy by caesarean section in July 2010, the other was not to live due to severe brain damage. According to the BGH, the killing of the viable but severely damaged twin constituted a punishable homicide and not an abortion without punishment. The rules for an abortion would only apply until the beginning of the birth. At the same time, the federal judges overturned the sentences imposed and ordered a retrial solely on the sentence.