Overview
- Hendrik Streeck says his comments were about preventing avoidable suffering rather than saving money and calls for clearer clinical limits in late-life phases.
- Health Minister Nina Warken and deputy spokesman Steffen Meyer state that age-based restrictions on costly therapies are not the position of the ministry or the federal government.
- The German Medical Association welcomes discussion but insists therapy choices must rest on patient wishes, prognosis and quality of life rather than age or economic cost.
- Karl Lauterbach, patient advocates and church leaders denounce any move toward rationing effective treatments by age as ethically unacceptable or discriminatory.
- Palliative specialist Martin Neukirchen urges decisions based on overall condition, promotes advance care planning and argues for stronger funding of hospice and palliative services, with no concrete policy changes announced.