Euthanasia: Disabled Petr Bartheldi (64) fights for assisted death

While in the Netherlands, Belgium or Switzerland patients can die with the assistance of doctors, in the Czech Republic this topic is still taboo. And even though President Petr Pavel (62) also supports euthanasia. “I am a person who likes to make decisions about my life and would also like to decide how to leave it,” said Pavel already as head of state at a discussion with citizens.

And Bartheldi is also such a person who would like to leave the world earlier. He receives a Level 3 disability pension after being hit by a car in 1996. “I would not like to undergo euthanasia just yet. But that time will probably come when I can’t take care of myself and I’ll be lying in an LDN, for example,” described Bartheldi.

He knows that he could die in the hands of doctors abroad, but he would like to have the same opportunity at home in the Czech Republic. “I want it not only for myself, but also for other people. We live in a democratic state, so we should decide for ourselves when we want to die with dignity.” he claims.

Court decision

He thus turns to the Constitutional Court with a complaint against the Czech state after other court instances rejected him. The Association for Euthanasia is also helping him with his complaint. Its chairman, Milan Hamerský, hopes that the constitutional judges will eventually order the politicians to adopt a legal norm allowing assisted death within the specified time limit. “That would be a good result for us. That they will conclude that the current state of affairs is contrary to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms,” Hamerský stated yesterday. However, it is not yet clear whether the Constitutional Court will deal with the matter at all.

Little political support

So far, politicians have not commented much on attempts to introduce euthanasia in the Czech Republic. One of the exceptions is senator and doctor Věra Procházková (70, ANO). In mid-March, she presented her draft law at the round table of the health committee of the upper chamber. However, her colleagues and experts are rather dismissive of it.

She already submitted a similar law in 2020, when she was still a member of Parliament together with the Pirates. And while the STAN movement is open to debating narrowly limited euthanasia, other parties are not so much.

“Probably no one can expect the People’s deputies to be in favor of legalizing euthanasia. We are for the protection of life from its conception to its natural end.” said MP Tom Philipp (55, KDU-ČSL), for example. TOP 09, ODS and the ANO movement are also reluctant or dismissive.