Euthanasia in international acts & documents: legal or not?

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of euthanasia and the human right to death in the context of international legal acts. The author also analyzes the legal positions of the European Court of Human Rights in order to identify approaches to the definition of “euthanasia” and the criteria that underlie the decision on the admissibility or inadmissibility of the use of euthanasia in each case. In particular, the article deals with situations when a patient is disconnected from the devices of the artificial life support system and has assisted suicide through the help of a doctor or relative. The author’s attention also focuses on the issue of the permissibility of patenting modern devices that have found application in the field of euthanasia from the standpoint of international law. In the study, such methods of scientific knowledge were used as general scientific dialectic, formal legal and comparative legal methods. At the same time, the author proceeds from the subjectively objective presetting of processes and phenomena, and their interconnection. The novelty of this study is determined by its very purpose, subject and range of sources considered. In this format, the author concludes that the human rights system formed by the considered international acts imposes obligations on the affiliated countries to guarantee the “right to life”, which creates obstacles for both legalizing the euthanasia procedure and spreading the patent legal regime on technology in this area. The author also established that the state’s obligation to protect the right to life should be correlated with the individual right to autonomy of the patient.

euthanasia, international acts, the right to dignified death, the right to life, bioethics, active and passive euthanasia, assisted suicide