Citation

Thomas G. Theologische Beitrage 2021; 52(3): 173-190.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Based on the decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court of February 2020 on the right to assisted suicide, the article analyzes in a first step the four most important legal-philosophical foundations of the decision: 1. the separation of assisted suicide from all real life conditions; 2. the localization of the dignity to be protected in the act of free self-determination; 3. the invention of a right to a certain form of self-determination; and 4. the appreciative objectification of suicide as a socially supported option for shaping life or death. In contrast to natural law or purely creation-theological argumentations, the article then unfolds a pointedly evangelical critique of assisted suicide. It concentrates on God's not only liberating but also binding judgment of mercy, which is derived from the entire Christ event. After this basic theological section, a subsequent section considers the expected consequences of assisted suicide for the ecology of an ethos of care. © 2021 SCM R.Brockhaus. All rights reserved.

Language: de