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Assisted suicide Europe Euthanasia International

Haas v. Switzerland/ assisted suicide case

Here is a link to a press release from the European Centre for Law and Justice on a recent decision from the European Court of Human Rights on assisted suicide.  http://www.eclj.org/Releases/Read.aspx?GUID=f47f9a82-9459-4a51-9c4d-eb3db0ff3cf3&s=eur The decision rejected the claim of a man who claimed a right to obtain a lethal drug without a prescription, as Swiss law requires.

Here is the conclusion of the release–

“Thus, in spite of the still problematic recognition of a sort of right to suicide, a peculiar an disputable extension of the right to private life, the Court doesn’t endorse the allegations of the applicant according to which the State would have a positive obligation to take measures allowing for a rapid and painless suicide. On the contrary, under Article 2 which guaranteed the right to life, the State must ensure the protection of the life of people under its jurisdiction. Even when assisted suicide is allowed, as in Switzerland, the State must prevent abuse in the use of this faculty because of his obligation to protect life.”

Richard M.

Richard Myers

Richard S. Myers, the Vice-President of UFL, is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, where he teaches Antitrust, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, and Religious Freedom. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College and earned his law degree at Notre Dame, where he won the law school's highest academic prize. He began his legal career by clerking for Judge John F. Kilkenny of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Myers also worked for Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, D.C. He taught at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law before joining the Ave Maria faculty. He is a co-editor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition: Contemporary Perspectives (Catholic University of American Press, 2004) and a co-editor of Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2007). He has also published extensively on constitutional law in law reviews and also testified before Congressional and state legislative hearings on life issues. Married to Mollie Murphy, who is also on the faculty at Ave Maria School of Law, they are the proud parents of six children - Michael, Patrick, Clare, Kathleen, Matthew, and Andrew. http://www.avemarialaw.edu/index.cfm?event=faculty.bio&pid=11705E7D4E0111010366