German Ecumenical Week for Life focuses on "Life in Dying"

Starting from today, Christian Churches in Germany will be celebrating their 26th Ecumenical Week for Life. The week has been organized since 1994 by the Catholic Bishops Conference (Dbk) together with the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) to raise awareness in the Church and larger society on the dignity of every human life.

This year’s edition, which was postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is focused on the theme “Life in Dying” which was inspired by a fundamental change in the German legal framework concerning the right to life.

The Federal Constitutional Court's ruling on "self-responsible suicide" 

In a ruling in February 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court overturned a Bundestag's decision in 2015 to ban professionally assisted suicide under Section 217 of the German Penal Code (StGB). According to the Karlsruhe judges, the constitutional principle of freedom and dignity of all persons also includes the fundamental right of self-determination of their own death. This means that in the future doctors will be called upon by the law to medically assist ill people wanting to commit suicide.  German Bishops have expressed concern over the ruling, saying that “assisted suicide is not an ethically acceptable option.

A dangerous trend towards euthanasia 

Auxiliary Bishop of Augsburg Anton Losinger, who is also a member of the Ethical Commission of Bavaria, explains to Vatican News the Church’s arguments against it. Assisted suicide, he says, “establishes an inclined plane” that will fatally lead to legalizing euthanasia and accelerate the process, a trend which the Catholic Church and the majority of health professionals in the Federal Republic of Germany, vigorously oppose.

Source: Vatican News