[Legal developments--from taboo to sexual self-determination for handicapped patients?].

The author describes the development in German law regarding the protection of sexual self-determination of disabled persons. Her analysis encompasses the last twenty years, starting from the "cripple-tribunal 1981", where disabled women first raised the subject in German public. As the main legal reforms for disabled persons in Germany, the author analysis the Thirty-First-Criminal-Law-Change-Act and the Sixth-Act-To-Reform-Criminal-Law of 1997/98 as well as the Ninth-Social-Law-Code of 2001. The author welcomes these legislative reforms but points to the fact that the judiciary has yet failed to implement particularly the criminal law reform. In addition she shows that the new criminal law does not fill all former protection gaps. She demands further reforms in other areas of law. Finally she emphasizes that comprehensive information and education for all those who are concerned by the subject are necessary.