Euthanasia Between Autonomy, Dignity, and the Legal Protection of Life: Can the Right to Life be Transformed into a Right to Die?
Euthanasia Between Autonomy, Dignity, and the Legal Protection of Life: Can the Right to Life be Transformed into a Right to Die?

Summary/Abstract: The right to life is a basic human right and the foundation for the protection of all other rights and freedoms. In this context, euthanasia opens up complex legal, ethical, philosophical and psychological dilemmas, especially in the relationship between the patient’s autonomy and the state’s obligation to protect life. Although the subject of the paper is primarily euthanasia, the analysis also includes assisted suicide to the extent that it is necessary for comparative legal and normative consideration of this issue. The paper examines the question of whether the right to life can be derived from the so-called the right to die. It starts from the position that the right to life cannot be transformed into the right to die, but that the patient’s autonomy can only be recognized within strictly limited legal frameworks. The analysis includes international standards for the protection of human rights, the practice of the European Court of Human Rights and comparative legal solutions in the field of euthanasia and assisted suicide. A special contribution of the paper is reflected in the consideration of psychological factors that can affect the ability to make an autonomous decision, including the ability to reason, hopelessness and fluctuation of will.

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