Expansion of the palliative medical offer

President of the German Medical Association calls for expansion of palliative medical services

03/19/2015

The President of the German Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, has expressly praised the plans of the policy to improve palliative care and has called for swift implementation. „The development of palliative care services is right and important and would be an important signal against the background of the current euthanasia debate“, Montgomery in the current press release of the German Medical Association.

According to the President of the German Medical Association, experience shows that critically ill people often lose their wish to die if they feel safe and well looked after. Therefore, be urgent „more outpatient and inpatient palliative care structures“ required. „We need to improve the medical, ethical and legal framework. We need more science, teaching and research. And for all that we need adequate financing“, so Montgomery on the occasion of the announcement of the Federal Government to introduce a hospice and palliative law. „Unfortunately, politics has allowed a lot of time to pass here. It is all the more important that such a law is now implemented swiftly“, emphasizes the medical president.

Active euthanasia is a taboo topic
Dying is already part of the medical duties that are uniformly and nationwide in the professional regulations of the medical associations. „The job of doctors is to preserve life, to protect and restore health, to alleviate suffering and to assist the dying“, explains the German Medical Association. However, the euthanasia, ie the killing of the patient, remains a taboo, even if it takes place at the request of the patient. (Fp)

Picture: Philipp Flury