(OPINION) Last year, Germany’s highest court overturned a five-year-old law banning physician-assisted suicide. Now, though, there is a new hurdle to euthanasia: a COVID vaccination.

One leading euthanasia group in Germany, Verein Sterbehilfe, has issued a new directive, announcing it will only help end the lives of those who have either been vaccinated against COVID-19 or fully recovered from the virus, according to The Spectator.

The group declared: “Euthanasia and the preparatory examination of the voluntary responsibility of our members willing to die require human closeness. Human closeness, however, is a prerequisite and breeding ground for coronavirus transmission. As of today, the 2G rule applies in our association, supplemented by situation-related measures, such as quick tests before encounters in closed rooms.”

Verein Sterbhilfe concluded potential clients must be inoculated against the virus based on the “difficult task of balancing the protection of our members, employees, and doctors with the practical organization of our everyday life in the association,” the Daily Mail reported.

As for the court’s decision to grant constitutional protection to euthanasia, the court stated people have “the right to a self-determined death,” going so far as to suggest legal protections for assisted suicide should not be limited to just those suffering from serious or incurable illnesses. READ MORE