Health talk: Euthanasia - definition and current legal situation

On Wednesday, 22 March, the next lecture in the GESUNDHEITSTALK series, which is organised in cooperation with the VHS and Ärztenetz BOHRIS e.V., is on the programme. Dr. Benedikt Matenaer, anaesthetist, pain therapist and palliative physician, will speak on the topic of "Euthanasia - definition and current legal situation". The venue is the Media Centre Bocholt, Hindenburgstr. 5, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. Seat reservations at www.vhs-bocholt.de are recommended.

"Self-determination over one's own end of life belongs to the very own sphere of the personhood of man, in which he is free to choose his standards and to decide according to them." This sentence from the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court of 26.2.2020 sets the framework for the regulation of euthanasia. But what is hidden behind this fuzzy term? Currently, various draft laws on the subject of assisted suicide are being discussed and debated. The lecture describes the legal situation that is now in force, what effects it has and also includes questions of end-of-life medicine.

Members of the OMEGA Bocholt Hospice Foundation will be present in the evening with an information table and will be happy to provide information.

Due to the great response in advance, the VHS advises reserving a place at www.vhs-bocholt.de.

The speaker, Dr. Benedikt Matenaer, is an anaesthetist, pain therapist and palliative physician. He works in the palliative care ward of the St. Agnes Hospital in Bocholt as well as in his own practice and manages outpatient palliative care in Bocholt. Together with others, he filed a lawsuit against § 217 (so-called euthanasia paragraph), which the Federal Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional on 26.2.2020.