November 12, 2020, 3 p.m.
November 12, 2020, 3 p.m.
Update: November 12, 2020, 3:02 p.m.
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Wrzburg (dpa) Anyone who cares for a person knows about the fears and exertions involved in this task. If old people take care of old people, it can be an ordeal for the carer. In Lower Franconia, a pensioner almost breaks it – with fatal consequences.
The defendant (left) next to his lawyer Norman Jacob.
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Is it permissible to release a seriously ill person from their suffering and kill them in order to render them one last service? No, the Wrzburg Regional Court ruled on Thursday at the end of a very emotional trial.
Two years’ imprisonment, suspended on probation, is the not yet final decision of the Chamber for a 92-year-old.
A woman is dead, her husband suffocated her – but the case is not a typical crime story. Rather, it throws a spotlight on the nursing situation in Germany and the predicament of relatives of the sick, who sometimes sacrifice themselves to the point of exhaustion for their loved ones.
The man accused by the jury is 92 years old. For years he cared for his sick wife almost alone in Gemnden am Main (Main-Spessart district). You have been married for almost 70 years and have no children. The 91-year-old has dementia, has delusions, and often does not recognize her husband. In addition, there is severe pain from osteoarthritis and she cannot hold her stool. I couldn’t bear to see my wife suffer either, says the pensioner. Today, however, he regrets her killing.
The defendant has lovingly cared for his wife for weeks, years, says Chief Prosecutor Thorsten Seebach. One can show respect for that. The defendant has achieved a great deal.
The lawyer is clearly trying to find the right words and above all to file an appropriate criminal complaint for a man whom many witnesses describe as hands-on, caring and self-sacrificing. We have an unusual case in front of the chamber, says Seebach. But even the couple’s special situation – she is sick, he is exhausted, both actually want to die together – does not give the 92-year-old the right to kill anyone.
There is a right to self-determined death, which the Federal Constitutional Court recently expressly recognized, said Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU) of the Bild newspaper. But that means: the person willing to die has to make the decision himself.
Defense attorney Norman Jacob sees it that way too. It is really difficult, he says. Here the question of the meaning and purpose of a punishment arises in particular. Any imprisonment would mean life for my client.
The dilemma of euthanasia becomes particularly clear in this family history. He was acutely stressed, says Jacob about his client, who on November 3, 2019, in his own words, no longer knew what to do and suffocated his wife with a blanket.
At that time, the 92-year-old was severely depressed and less guilty, explains psychiatrist Susanne Eberlein to the court. He had to be there for her day and night. Your incontinence had hit him massively. He saw no light at the end of the tunnel. The imminent short-term care of his wife had unsettled him, both never wanted to go to a home. Because the man no longer expected a future worth living for his wife and himself, he killed her. A subsequent suicide attempt failed.
As a rule, it is the old who take care of the old. The three million people in need of care at home and their relatives are often left alone, criticizes the board of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch. However, some also refuse help.
Chief Public Prosecutor Seebach holds against the accused that his dwindling vitality was also self-inflicted because he did not want to accept any help, as it might have been necessary. It must not end like this, even if the pensioner acted out of care and love and with good motives.
Seebach wrestled with himself, finally pleading for two years and nine months imprisonment for manslaughter in a minor case. Defense attorney Jacob also sees manslaughter given, but wants to see a prison sentence suspended.
The Chamber finds a middle ground. According to the presiding judge Hans Brckner, the defendant’s behavior was to be judged legally as manslaughter. However, the chamber was unable to identify any aspects of the defendant’s behavior at the expense. However, the judgment should not be understood as a license for copycat children. It is certainly an extraordinary case.
dpa-infocom, dpa: 201112-99-303459 / 5
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