The legal principles arising from the European Court of Human Rights on assisted suicide

Abstract

This research project deals with the notions of suicide and assisted suicide as developed by the European Court of Human Rights within the scope of Article 8 – the right to respect for private and family life – of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The objective of this research is to present an in-depth analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. The implications of the jurisprudence are dissected to reveal how gradually, the Court has developed a right to assisted suicide within the scope of the individual autonomy under Article 8. This work has been divided into four sections. The Introduction sets out the objective of the research project and how the arguments will be presented in reply to the research questions. Chapter 1 deals with the concept of the positive obligations enjoined upon the state by the right to life, explaining their relationship to the negative obligations, as well as briefly discussing suicide and assisted suicide in the landscape of human rights in Europe. Chapter 2 highlights the landmark judgments in this field and how a right to assisted suicide has been developed through the state‘s procedural obligations, while Chapter 3 discusses whether the Court‘s jurisprudence on assisted suicide made the individual‘s autonomy the most supreme value of the European Convention, thereby superseding the right to life. The research spanned through the relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, several journals dealing with the implications of the cases and the European Convention of Human Right, together with various books and papers written by professionals in this field. This research aims to give an overall understanding of the development of the legal principles established by the Court in this field and the gradual recognition of a right to assisted suicide.