[Euthanasia--focal point of the physician's responsibility in the light of legal norms].

Procuring death is in the borderline area between life and death. Nowadays there is general agreement on the validity of the formula that the physician shall not be instrumental in inducing death but only in easing the process of dying. From the medico-legal point of view the problems must be treated in relation to the provisions of criminal law which constitute the physician's legistic field of tension in the situations at issue. From these passages of law emerge some basic principles to be observed by the physician when having to take decisions in borderline cases between life and death. Ranking first is the general prohibition on homicide, which includes the killing of another person at this person's own request as defined in section 77 and aiding and abetting suicide as defined in section 78 of the Austrian penal code. All of these are cases of objective crime, so that in each case the causal connection between the physician's death has to be established. According to Austrian jurisdiction a person incapable of living just as a person dying qualifies as object of homicide. In addition section 78 of the Austrian penal code prohibits any form of participation in suicide.