Mental Health - Widower Experience (WX)

 My wife could die in dignity one and a half year ago. "This is my way, my will and my decision," my wife has mention over and over again over the past few days before she passed away on her own will. And she said as well: "I love life, I only wish I could live it, but I'm trapped with everything I have in my body - a body that I can't move anymore, a body that only others can touch, move, wash, ... - it's so degrading to me"  And one of her last sentences were: "See you on the other side." In the following video, Esther used almost the same words: “This is my story, my journey and my choice,” “I love life, I just wish I could live it.” "See you on the other side." In October 2020, two-thirds of New Zealanders voted in a referendum to enact the End of Life Choice Act. However, it will still take around 12 months for the law to come into force in November 2021. Euthanasia has been legal in New Zealand since and people can apply for it,...

In many countries, there is a divisive public controversy over the moral, ethical, and legal issues of death with dignity. On the one hand, some people view 'death with dignity' as taking a life – murder – even though the person being “murdered” has little or no quality of life, they know this quality of life will get poorer, and they want to die with dignity, while they are still of a sane mind. Other people say that this sick and dying person has the right to choose to die with dignity, and that everyone has the self-determination, autonomy and dignity help-to-live and right-to-die - and that this freedom is a basic human right. First of all I want to stress that we must do anything and everything what we can do in order to improve others life, but we must not leave people alone - people who are in chronic pain, suffer pain, loosing abilities, loosing sovereignty and autonomy of their life. Yes, Our attention must be focused on life, and our efforts must be toward improving ...

As mentioned and outline in my blog posts before in German ( Recht auf selbstbestimmtes Sterben ) and English ( Right to a Self-determined Death ) German Federal Constitutional Court has stated, in a judgment pronounced in February 2020, that the prohibition of assisted suicide services set out in § 217 (which made assisted suicide a criminal offense) of the German Criminal Code is inoperative and violates the German Basic Law. In Canada there has been the possibility of so-called assisted suicide for 5 years. What (intended and unintentional) psychological and social consequences, as they are visible in Canada, entails such an opening to suicide assistance? What can German legislation learn from Canadian experiences and observations? Perhaps the Canadian legislation on “ MAID - Medical Assistance in Dying ” might or can serve as a role model?!   Prof. Dr. Raymond Voltz (Director of the Center for Palliative Medicine, University Hospital Cologne) and Prof. Gary Rodin MD (Direct...