[Assisted suicide : Attitudes and experiences of members of the DGPPN]

After the Federal Constitutional Court overturned the ban on business-like assisted suicide in 2020, politicians, society and the medical profession are discussing legal protective measures to prevent abuse. This survey among members of the DGPPN is the first to record the attitudes and experiences regarding assisted suicide of psychiatrists and other mental health workers in Germany, as suicidality and assisted suicide are highly relevant topics for medicine and especially for psychiatry and psychotherapy.

The survey was conducted as an online survey with a specially created questionnaire and a DSGVO-compliant data protection concept and sent to a total of 9356 members. In addition to the descriptive analysis of the questionnaire, the free-text responses were subjected to an additional qualitative analysis. Finally, correlations between sociodemographic variables and relevant items were examined.

A total of 2048 members participated in the survey (22%). Most participants (88%) considered a (new) legal regulation of assisted suicide to be necessary; the separation of counselling, assessment and execution of assisted suicide was mentioned most frequently (76%). The majority considered assisted suicide to be legitimate under certain circumstances when the suicide wish is freely made (72%), especially in cases of high suffering and near the end of life (67%). Age, gender, and religious beliefs were found to be significant influencing factors in several responses.

A large majority of the DGPPN members consider it necessary to find a legal regulation that prevents abuse of assisted suicide; however, while most participants did not consider assisted suicide to be legitimate or illegitimate in principle, but rather made this dependent on the specific circumstances of the suicide wish, more than half ruled out to assist with suicide. The results represent an important contribution to the political debates about legal protective measures.