“We do not need assisted suicide in Germany to relieve suffering”, said the president of the German Palliative Care Foundation, Thomas Sitte, who took the floor in Berlin at the presentation of “PAL-LIFE”, the White Paper for the development of palliative care sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAL). According to Mr Sitte, the White Paper provides “a practical basis to all institutions involved, in a varying degree, in the provision of healthcare” and is also “key to spreading sound and necessary knowledge and to explaining” its meaning in “plain, practical terms”. Suicide “is seen as a fundamental right and help to commit it as a service” to be provided, said Bishop Franz-Josef Bode (Osnabrück), chair of the Pastoral Commission of the German Bishops’ Conference, referring to the ongoing debate in Germany. “As Christians we are close to the patient and, even when there is no chance of a successful medical outcome, we do not give up and provide them with the best possible care and relief for their pain”, without “delaying their death with over-treatment and without anticipating it”. The bishop called for greater dissemination of palliative care in Germany. And he stressed the need for the Church to develop a pastoral care for the dying, in “cooperation with healthcare professions”, reflecting on the meaning of spiritual care and “rediscovering the Church’s sacraments for the end of life”.