The analysis of Polish regulation of assisted suicide in the context of the judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court of February 26, 2020.

Abstract

This publication aims to examine the Polish regulation of assisted suicide in terms of its constitutionality. The starting point is an analysis of the judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court, which resulted in the depenalization of the offer of suicide assistance under professional services by entrepreneurs in Germany and, consequently, the complete legalisation of assisted suicide in this country. The theses contained in the cited judgment, however, refer to much broader issues, such as: ratio legis of assisted suicide penalization, understanding the right to life and tasks of the state within its protection, the right of the individual to decide about his death as part of exercising the right to self-determination and its bond with human dignity. The study attempts to transfer the legitimacy of these theses to the Polish legal order, introducing Polish regulations of assisted suicide found in the Penal Code and the provisions of the Constitution. The text also attempts to indicate the complexity of the assisted suicide problem, briefly referring to the very different approaches to it by selected European legislation and to the social controversy that this phenomenon raises. Moreover, de lege ferenda proposals were presented within the scope of the matter under consideration in the Polish legal order and the reasons for the necessity to introduce them, resulting from the influence of cultural conditions.