STRASBOURG, France — The Grand Chamber of
the European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear an appeal in a
lawsuit filed against the Swiss government after authorities there would
not provide a woman who does not suffer from
any fatal disease with drugs to commit suicide. An ECHR panel ruled 4-3 in May of this year that Switzerland’s law
banning lethal poison in such circumstances violates Article 8 of the
European Convention on Human Rights (right to respect for private and
family life) because the court considered the law
vague.
“The government has an obligation to protect life,
not facilitate death,” said Legal Counsel Paul Coleman. “Claims to
personal autonomy do not override national laws designed to protect the
weak and vulnerable. We trust the Grand Chamber
will support this principle, which is entirely consistent with the
European Convention on Human Rights.”
In March 2012, Alliance Defending Freedom
intervened in the case and explained, “The clear jurisprudence of
the Court is that there is no right to assisted suicide or euthanasia
under the Convention, nor are there any positive obligations on the
State in regard to these issues, save the positive
duty on the States to protect life under Article 2.”
Although Switzerland is one of only four European
countries to allow doctor-prescribed death in certain circumstances,
individuals can obtain sodium pentobarbital, a drug that can be used to
commit suicide, only after a medical examination
and prescription by a doctor.
Alda Gross, a Swiss citizen, failed to find a
doctor prepared to prescribe the lethal substance to her, so she
appealed to the national courts in 2009. The Swiss courts held that the
restrictive conditions placed on the drug are in place
to prevent abuse and cannot be overridden in the absence of a medical
prescription. They also noted that Gross “does not suffer from a fatal
disease.”
The Gross v. Switzerland case is the most recent attempt to create a “right” to assisted suicide under the European Convention. In a very similar case,
Haas v. Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights in 2011
unanimously rejected the claim that the country had an obligation to
assist individuals in committing suicide.
Alliance
Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal
organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out
their faith.
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