\n<\/p>\n
German politicians who have survived cancer have spearheaded proposals to protect people long in remission from what they call rampant discrimination in areas including bank loans, adoption of children and insurance.<\/p>\n
The policy known as \u201cthe right to be forgotten\u201d (RTBF) is a central demand of a community estimated to number 5.5 million people in Germany: former cancer patients who have been given a clean bill of health by their doctors.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who has medically overcome cancer must not be permanently disadvantaged in any area of life, be it in insurance, credit or employment law,\u201d reads the proposed measure drawn up by the Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Germany\u2019s coalition government.<\/p>\n
Once medically justified time limits \u2013 generally five years \u2013 have expired, \u201cdisclosure of a previously overcome cancer diagnosis can no longer be required\u201d, the paper states.<\/p>\n
One of the proposal\u2019s initiators is Adis Ahmetovi\u0107, the foreign policy spokesperson of the SPD\u2019s parliamentary group, who went public with a lymphoma diagnosis at the age of 30 and is now 33. He has been tumour-free since October 2024 and could be medically considered cancer-free in 2029.<\/p>\n
Ahmetovi\u0107 argues that beyond its ethical justification, the policy \u201cwould not cost the state a cent\u201d.<\/p>\n
He received support from his fellow Social Democrat Manuela Schwesig, who is a breast cancer survivor and the state premier of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on the Baltic coast.<\/p>\n
Schwesig said Germany remained among EU outliers in creating high obstacles to a fresh start for former cancer patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have the right [in other countries] to make plans again as normal: to buy a house, to start a family,\u201d she told the Funke media group. \u201cOther European countries have long since sorted this out. We need a law for this; voluntary commitments are not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SPD\u2019s co-leader Lars Klingbeil, who is Germany\u2019s finance minister, overcame tongue cancer, after learning of his illness in 2014. He has also thrown his weight behind the legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who has beaten cancer must be able to look ahead freely again, socially and economically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Lars Klingbeil: \u2018Anyone who has beaten cancer must be able to look ahead freely again.\u2019 <\/span> Photograph: Andreas Rentz\/EPA<\/p>\n A petition calling for Germany to adopt RTBF reforms has drawn more than 55,000 signatures. It was initiated by Tobias Burggraf, whose daughter was diagnosed with cancer at the age of two and a half.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the healing, life begins \u2013 not the next hurdle,\u201d Burggraf said, describing his goal. He said the SPD-sponsored proposal \u201ccovers the thrust of our petition\u201d, calling it \u201ccorrect and long overdue\u201d.<\/p>\n The SPD parliamentary group cited survey data from a patients\u2019 rights lobbying group showing that 77% of medically declared cancer survivors face what it called discrimination when taking out private insurance policies.<\/p>\n However, the German Insurance Association (GDV), an industry group, warned against setting fixed time limits on cancer patient status. It said private insurance providers of life and disability coverage must be able to assess patients\u2019 future risk based on scientific review and medical advice to keep policies affordable for all.<\/p>\n \u201cEven after successful treatment, relapses, long-term effects of the therapy or lasting health problems may persist,\u201d said the association\u2019s general manager, J\u00f6rg Asmussen. \u201cThere may also be an increased risk of other diseases, particularly other types of cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n Susanne Weg-Remers, of the German Cancer Research Centre in the western city of Heidelberg, said that while some cancer survivors did develop tumours in other organs, the risk was not significantly higher than in the general population.<\/p>\n Given that one in two men and one in two to three women in Germany will develop a malignant tumour at some point in their lives, \u201cif you were to use cancer as an argument,\u201d she told S\u00fcddeutsche newspaper, \u201cyou wouldn\u2019t be allowed to sell insurance policies or grant loans at all\u201d.<\/p>\n Patient advocacy groups say automatic presumptions about future health are particularly unfair to younger survivors, whose prognoses are often good.<\/p>\n The German Foundation for Young Adults with Cancer said 16,500 people aged 18 to 39 were diagnosed with cancer in Germany each year, as well as 2,100 children, but medical advances meant more than 80% of the two groups could be healed.<\/p>\n The European Society for Medical Oncology, which provides cancer information and education, has advocated for a fair common standard for financial services access for cancer survivors across Europe based on a five-year minimum remission period. The society said the current patchwork of laws across the EU led to \u201cunjustified discrimination\u201d.<\/p>\n Only 11 EU member states had introduced specific legal measures protecting cancer survivors from financial discrimination, it said, leaving 16 without equivalent protections. \u201cAs a result, access to financial services continues to depend heavily on where a cancer survivor lives.\u201d<\/p>\n An EU directive that Germany is still working to implement allows for restrictions for a period of up to 15 years after the end of treatment and offers narrow protections in the context of credit and insurance.<\/p>\n The UK has no binding RTBF laws. While Ireland passed such a law in 2026 focused on a level playing field for mortgage seekers, the UK has a largely voluntary framework.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" German politicians who have survived cancer have spearheaded proposals to protect people long in remission from what they call rampant discrimination in areas including bank loans, adoption of children and insurance. The policy known as \u201cthe right to be forgotten\u201d (RTBF) is a central demand of a community estimated to number 5.5 million people in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[654,4663,2284,6066,2794,3034,3033,354],"class_list":{"0":"post-51611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-discrimination","10":"tag-future","11":"tag-german","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-politicians","14":"tag-protection","15":"tag-survivors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}