Ombudsman Calls for Training of Emergency Personnel for Assisted Dying

The incident is described in the annual report of the Ombudsman. A woman, who had previously set up a legally valid living will, independently took the lethal medication provided by the pharmacy in such cases. About 15 minutes later, police officers entered the apartment, pushed aside a man present who pointed to the living will, and initiated resuscitation measures.

Assisted Suicide: Rescue Also Wanted to Resuscitate Woman with Legally Valid Living Will

The same was repeated after the arrival of paramedics and an emergency doctor. They too were unimpressed by the presentation of the living will and the mention of the medication and used a defibrillator. This continued until the ECG showed no more signals. The police officers had been alerted by a friend of the deceased, whom the woman had called to say goodbye before taking the medication. They dismissed the man's objections - it was their duty to save lives and they were not aware of official information on the Living Will Act.

Ombudsman Does Not Personally Blame Helpers

Ombudsman Bernhard Achitz did not personally blame the helpers in a statement. "What they need are clear regulations and information on the Living Will Act and assisted suicide. Legal contradictions should be eliminated so that emergency personnel can respect living wills." For example, according to the Vienna Rescue and Patient Transport Act, rescue services are obliged to provide immediate emergency medical assistance due to immediate danger to life.

However, the Ombudsman has "serious concerns whether the actions of the police officers and the emergency medical personnel were an objectively unjustified interference in the constitutionally protected sphere of both the dying person and the man." Among other things, reference is made to the regulations on advance directives, which oblige paramedics and emergency doctors involved in a rescue operation not to carry out the measures mentioned in the directive.

Similarly, a living will can be used to assess the presumed will of the patient, even if the Living Will Act does not currently explicitly provide for this. However, the purpose of the law and the case law of the Constitutional Court indicate that "the free and self-determined establishment and implementation of the living will fundamentally also includes the (binding for police and rescue forces) rejection of subsequent life-saving or life-sustaining measures."

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.