German Federal Court on PID

Imagine my surprise when I read in today's paper about a judgment from Germany's Federal Court in a case determining the legality or otherwise of pre-implantation diagnosis. Just so you get the significance of this, here's a blurb from Wikipedia about the relevance of the Federal Court in Germany's legal pecking order: 'The Federal Court of Justice of Germany (German: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highestcourt in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit) in Germany. It is the supreme court (court of last resort) in all matters of criminal and private law. A decision handed down by the BGH can only be reversed by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in rare cases when the Constitutional Court rules on constitutionality (compatibility with the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany).'

The Court determined that it is OK to check for serious genetic defects of embryos prior to implantation in couple with known serious genetic illnesses. In one of the cases the woman considering conceiving another child had already given birth to a disabled daughter, another woman went thru three failed pregnancies. It goes without saying that embryos that are non implanted after PID took place (ie after serious genetic defects have been diagnosed) will be destroyed.

Critics have trotted out the usual stuff like that this discriminates against the disabled, and that this takes us on a slippery slope to designer babies (ie selection in favor of blue eyed kids was mentioned). It is true that the court judgment takes a clear stance on the former issue. If at the embryonic stage it is possible to make a choice between a future seriously disabled child and a healthy (healthier) child, the latter is preferable and it is up to pregnant women to decline the implantation of the embryo known to be defective. On the latter issue, currently such choices would not be covered by the judgment, but frankly, what if someone chose blue eyes over brown eyes, or brown eyes over blue eyes, what danger would this really entail? If someone - like me - subscribes to the ethical stance (as I do) that women are very much entitled to make reproductive choices entailing abortions, for any reason or none, why should it matter that they decline the implantation of an embryo with the wrong eye color?

I do think my progressive friends need to think carefully about whether or not they support unconditionally a woman's right to make reproductive choices. If they do, the above mentioned slippery slope arguments must not faze them.

Assisted dying OK in Germany under certain circumstances

Imagine my surprise when I read in today's paper about a judgment from Germany's Federal Court in an assisted dying case. Just so you get the significance of this, here's a blurb from Wikipedia about the relevance of the Federal Court in Germany's legal pecking order: 'The Federal Court of Justice of Germany (German: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit) in Germany. It is the supreme court (court of last resort) in all matters of criminal and private law. A decision handed down by the BGH can only be reversed by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in rare cases when the Constitutional Court rules on constitutionality (compatibility with the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany).'

So, today said court ruled that if someone competent has decided they wish to die, even if the nature of their illness does not suggest that their dying process has begun, whoever removes pro-actively their means of life-support has not broken German law. Further, in the case of unconscious patients the patients' likely intention is considered sufficient to make the removal of life support systems legal. In the case under consideration a reportedly a woman who had been in persistent vegetative state for 5 years had her means of life support terminated by her daughter based on the patient's expressed wishes. Part of the problem was that her wishes were only expressed verbally to her daughter prior to her coma, hence no written advance directive existed. The patient had no chance of an improvement of her clinical situation. I wonder whether different circumstances might have changed the verdict or whether this really suggests that self-determination takes priority over the purported sanctity of life in German law.

This, of course, is terrible news for those God people who believe that we are not entitled to make respect demanding decisions about how we wish to die.