Schäfer A T
Institut für Rechtsmedizin der RWTH Aachen.
Gesundheitswesen. 1994 May;56(5):272-5.
Assistance to suicide can only be accepted ethically and juristically if the decision to commit suicide is based on a responsible, undisturbed freedom of decision-making. However, in a selection of the patients willing to commit suicide this freedom is restricted due to mental illness or other psychiatric disorders. In such cases doctors as well as laymen are obliged to help the patient to survive. Some problems may arise from the fact that medical laymen are frequently incompetent in distinguishing between mentally normal and disturbed states.
只有当自杀决定基于负责任、不受干扰的决策自由时，协助自杀在伦理和法律上才会被认可。然而，在一些愿意自杀的患者中，这种自由因精神疾病或其他精神障碍而受到限制。在这种情况下，医生和外行都有义务帮助患者活下去。由于医学外行往往无法胜任区分精神正常和紊乱状态的工作，可能会出现一些问题。
