German court orders rules to protect the disabled in triage

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s highest court has ruled that officials must draw up rules to protect disabled people if hospitals end up having to triage patients in the pandemic. The Federal Constitutional Court said on Tuesday that the parliament violated a clause in the constitution stating that no one can be discriminated against because of a disability, and ordered it to rectify the situation “without delay.” The court’s ruling came after it considered complaints last year from a group of people with serious disabilities, most of whom require regular assistance. They worried that doctors could give up on them if a situation arose in the coronavirus pandemic in which there weren’t enough hospital beds for the number of patients.