Criminalizing assisted suicide does not violate the rights of the sick person, in this case the right to respect for private life. It is a sentence that will be discussed by the one issued by the European Court of Human Rights. However, the ECHR has established that access to adequate palliative care must be guaranteed. The case on which the Court decided concerns the appeal of a Hungarian man suffering from advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who would like to be helped to die before his suffering becomes too great to bear. But in Hungary this is a criminal offense and anyone assisting a person, at home or abroad, could be criminally prosecuted.
In the ruling the Strasbourg judges highlight that there are social implications potentially large and risks of error and abuse in the practice of medically assisted death. They also indicate that “despite a growing trend towards its legalization, the majority of Member States of the Council of Europe continues to prohibit both medically assisted suicide and euthanasia“. As a result, countries have “therefore a wide margin of discretion in this area” and the ECtHR considers that the Hungarian authorities did not fail to find a fair balance between the interests at stake and did not exceed this discretion.
But at the same time the Court states that States must consider the need to change the law in order to take into account any changes in public opinion and international standards of medical ethics in this area. Finally, the Strasbourg judges believe that high-quality palliative care, including access to effective pain management, is essential to guarantee a dignified end of life. According to the experts heard by the Court, the palliative careincluding palliative sedation, are usually able to give relief for the sick who find themselves in the situation of the Hungarian man who appealed. The latter, they note in Strasbourg, did not claim that such care would not be available to him.
