The right to self-determination versus the obligation to protect one's health

Individual responsibility and the abidance by any health-related obligations are key words of the present political and legal German healthcare debate. In the process of adjusting the German welfare state by focussing the ideal allocation of common health resources patients who do not meet their health-related obligations are thus expected to accept cutbacks in medical care services. However, from the perspective of constitutional law there is no health-related obligation deriving from the German constitution - the right to self-determination guaranteed in Art. 2 Sect. 2 Sent. 1 of the German constitution has not been amended to impose a corresponding duty. Hence, health-related obligations may only refer to indirect ways of exercising individual responsibility, no more and no less. The present article highlights the few possibilities which the German constitution provides for the implementation of health-related obligations and reminds us of the conceptual aspects which have to be considered by the legislator.