Terri Schiavo: the Assessment of the Persistent Vegetative State in Accordance with German Law

Abstract:

The case of Terri Schiavo in the USA served to intensify the debate in Germany which itself had in part already been characterised by fundamentalism. Now that some time has elapsed and the political debate has quietened, this case is to be taken up again in discussing the permissibility and the prerequisites of passive euthanasia for patients in a persistent vegetative state. A short reconstruction of the facts of the case (II) is to be followed by a survey of the case law of the Criminal Panels(III) which is essential to understand the present legal policy debate to be discussed at a later stage (IV).