Leading German doctor backs assisted suicide

Should Germany shake off its scruples about assisted suicide? Der Spiegel pursued this sensitive question in a recent interview with Dr Michael de Ridder, an emergency medicine specialist who is also the chairman of the Hans Joachim and Käthe Stein Foundation for Palliative Medicine. His book, How Do We Want To Die? A Doctor's Plea for a New Culture of Dying and Death, in an Era of High Tech Medicine was released last month in Germany. BioEdge