If we have an inherent Right to Life, do we also have an inherent RIGHT TO DIE?
“NO”, says, at least, a European court. The European Court of Human Rights in Pretty v. UK DID NOT allow the petitioner suffering from a motor neuron disease to commit suicide with the help of her husband because she did not have the right to die and that there is NO such thing as Right to Die which can be derived from the Right to Life. The Court explained:
The consistent emphasis in all the cases before the Court has been the obligation of the State to protect life. The Court is not persuaded that “the right to life” guaranteed in Article 2 can be interpreted as involving a negative aspect. While, for example in the context of Article 11 of the Convention, the freedom of association has been found to involve not only a right to join an association but a corresponding right not to be forced to join an association, the Court observes that the notion of a freedom implies some measure of choice as to its exercise (see Young, James and Webster v. the United Kingdom, judgment of 13 August 1981, Series A no. 44, pp. 21-22, § 52, and Sigurđur A. Sigurjónsson v. Iceland, judgment of 30 June 1993, Series A no. 264, pp. 15-16, § 35). Article 2 of the Convention (European Convention on Human Rights) is phrased in different terms. It is unconcerned with issues to do with the quality of living or what a person chooses to do with his or her life. To the extent that these aspects are recognised as so fundamental to the human condition that they require protection from State interference, they may be reflected in the rights guaranteed by other Articles of the Convention, or in other international human rights instruments. Article 2 cannot, without a distortion of language, be interpreted as conferring the diametrically opposite right, namely a right to die; nor can it create a right to self-determination in the sense of conferring on an individual the entitlement to choose death rather than life.
December is considered internationally as Human Rights Month. Specifically, December 10 is internationally known as Human Rights Day since it was on that day in 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was proclaimed.
If I have time, I may post Human Rights Law trivia every Wednesday of December this year as we are currently taking up Human Rights Law this semester. Know your rights! 😀