Behaviour of former justice senator in Hamburg prompts court to rule against commercial suicide assistance

A court in Hamburg, Germany, has ruled that helping someone to commit suicide for financial gain should no longer be legal.

It decided this month that Dr Roger Kusch, senator for justice in Hamburg from 2001 to 2006, should no longer be allowed to continue his practice of helping people to kill themselves for a fee.

In 2007 Dr Kusch, a former member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, had founded “Dr Roger Kusch Sterbehilfe,” a registered society promoting the right to die (www.kuschsterbehilfe.de ).

So far, Dr Kusch has helped three elderly women and two men, none of whom were terminally ill, to end their lives. They each paid a fee of €6500 (£5820; $8300) to Dr Kusch and …