Austria legalizes assisted suicide for people with disabilities

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Austria Parliament

Bad news: Austria's parliament passed a bill, yesterday, legalizing assisted suicide. The assisted suicide bill is a reaction to last year's Austrian Supreme Court decision. Wesley Smith stated that the Austrian Supreme Court said that the right to self-determination includes the right to a “dignified death,” and also the right of a person who has decided of their own free will to kill himself or herself to get help in doing so from another person.

The Associated Press referred to it as a tightly limited right to assisted suicide whereas my analysis of the bill found that the language of the bill specifically permits assisted suicide for people with disabilities who are not otherwise dying.

On October 26 I wrote that the Austrian bill states that chronically or terminally ill adults to make provisions for an assisted suicide. When assisted suicide is permitted for chronically ill people the law will become fairly wide open. Many people with disabilities, who are not otherwise dying, have chronic conditions.

DW news reported that:

The Assisted Suicide Act gives the option of an advance directive — similar to a living will — only to people over 18 who are terminally ill or suffer from a permanent, debilitating condition.

Each case is to be assessed by two doctors, one of whom would have to be an expert in palliative medicine. As part of their duties, they must determine whether a patient is opting for euthanasia independently.

At least 12 weeks must pass before a patient is granted access to the procedure, to ensure that euthanasia is not being sought due to a temporary crisis. However, for patients in the "terminal phase" of an illness, the period can be shortened to two weeks.

The Austrian assisted suicide law, which is tauted as a tightly worded law, is similar to other assisted suicide laws with the exception that it contains a longer waiting period but the person does not need too be dying. The language of the bill permits assisted suicide for people with disabilities who are not otherwise dying.