By striking down § 217 of the German Criminal Code, the Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court made a landmark decision. It is rare for the decriminalisation of any kind of physician-assisted death to be effectuated by a court decision. And although the court leaves it to the lawgiver to design a full regulatory framework for the protection of the possibly affected rights, it binds that framework to some requirements, thereby virtually guaranteeing that it will, arguably, be the most liberal one in the world. It is true that the future German law will still not permit the active ending of a patient’s life on his explicit and serious request under any conditions (§ 216 German Criminal Code), as the present Dutch and Belgian laws do. [---]