Law
Right to Life
The right to life is a fundamental human right that protects individuals from being unlawfully deprived of their lives. It is often enshrined in national constitutions and international human rights instruments. This right encompasses not only the right to be free from arbitrary execution, but also the obligation of states to take positive measures to protect individuals' lives.
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10 Key excerpts on "Right to Life"
- Shane McCorristine(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Springer Open(Publisher)
The (legal) line between life and death is thus fundamental. D EATH AND THE R IGHT TO L IFE Every human being has a legally enforceable Right to Life. This right can be found, for example, in Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and Article 6 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. Article 2 ECHR is also protected in domestic law by means of the Human Rights Act 1998. This does not, of course, mean that we can require our government to keep us alive indefnitely. It is an inherent fact of life that we will all die. Nonetheless, the Right to Life does impose a variety of obligations on the state. At its core, the Right to Life prohibits unjustifed killing by the state. However, increasingly its interpretation requires far more than that core minimum, including posi-tive obligations to take appropriate steps to safeguard the lives of those within its jurisdiction. In Osman v United Kingdom (1998) 29 E.H.R.R. 245; Reps 1998-VIII at para 115, the European Court of Human Rights held that Article 2(1) “enjoins the state not only to refrain from the intentional and unlawful taking of life, but also to take appropriate steps to safe-guard the lives of those within its jurisdiction”. This means that state 8 THE LEGAL DEFINITION OF DEATH AND THE Right to Life 125 authorities must do all that could reasonably be expected of them to avoid a real and immediate risk to life of which they have, or ought to have, knowledge, although the Court did recognise that this obligation must be interpreted in a way which does not impose an impossible or disproportionate burden on the authorities. 12 A government committed to the Right to Life must, therefore, not merely refrain from killing, but also govern in a manner that seeks to preserve human life wherever rea-sonably possible. Arguably, the most important principle underlying the Right to Life is not the sanctity of life but rather a requirement of respect for all human life.
eBook - ePub- Peter Halstead(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
The case law, domestic and European, demonstrates the wide scope of this subject, from abortion and separation of conjoined twins to euthanasia and removal of life support from persons in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). Other aspects involve self-defence, deprivation of life whilst in custody, war and circumstances where States may or may not have failed in their positive duty to create and permit conditions where life is protected. As suggested above, sometimes philosophical and ethical issues arise such as identifying the precise moment at which life begins or ends, an important consideration in modern medical research and practice.The Right to Life is contained in Article 2 as follows: ARTICLE‘2(1) Everyone’s Right to Life shall be protected by law. No-one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law.2(2) Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this Article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary in: (a) defence of any person; (b) order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained; (c) action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.’ The Right to Life is fundamental to all human rights and in a sense can be regarded as a pre-requisite to all the other substantive rights, but as Article 2(2) clearly shows there are circumstances where deprivation of life can be justified. The most obvious one is self-defence but Article 2(2)(a) encompasses defence of any person from unlawful violence (thus going beyond self-defence) and is not qualified by the words ‘absolutely necessary’ as one might expect it to be if enacted in a domestic context.
eBook - PDFThe Right to Life under International Law
An Interpretative Manual
- Stuart Casey-Maslen(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
Schabas, The European Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017, pp. 601–2. 77 African Commission General Comment on the Right to Life, para. 5. 78 See, also, ‘Fourth Report on Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens) by Dire Tladi, Special Rapporteur’, International Law Commission, UN doc. A/CN.4/727, 31 January 2019, para. 130. The Status of the Right to Life 19 the Right to Life as a general principle of law 1.28 General principles of law serve as the third primary source of international law identified by the Statute of the International Court of Justice. They are generally under- stood to offer an opportunity to the Court to identify rules common to domestic regimes in the absence of a treaty or customary rule on a particular issue. 79 As such, therefore, the notion is potentially less relevant to an assessment of the international legal status of the Right to Life. 1.29 That said, the Right to Life is certainly a general principle of law. Three-quarters of the world’s States have written Constitutions that explicitly recognise or guarantee the Right to Life (or at least its protection). 80 Moreover, murder (and other forms of homicide) is universally prohibited in domestic legal systems. 81 Thus, Tomuschat, despite his doubts as to the peremptory nature of the right, argues that the ‘most plausible’ argument is that the right ‘constitutes today a general principle of international law’. 82 In its General Comment on the Right to Life under the African Charter, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights duly stated that the right not to be arbitrarily deprived of one’s life is also recognised as part of the general principles of law. 83 79 R. Jennings and A. Watts (eds.), Oppenheim’s International Law, 9th ed., Longman, London, 1992, vol.
eBook - ePubThe Right to Life and the Value of Life
Orientations in Law, Politics and Ethics
- Jon Yorke(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
For the ‘pro-choice’ position see, Pro-Choice Majority, www.prochoicemajority.org.uk, and Prochoice, http://prochoice.com. Indeed, the issue of abortion not only involves antagonistic debates surrounding the Right to Life of the foetus, but also, the Right to Life of physicians, as is witnessed when pro-life activists kill pro-choice physicians administering abortions. An example in the United States was the shooting of Dr George Tiller in Kansas on 31 May 2009. 4 This collection is not concerned with identifying any per se ‘meaning of life.’ However, the chapters in this book do provide a certain level of ‘meaning’ within the specific juridical, political and philosophical boundaries with which the contributors are concerned. For the appropriateness of the question of an inherent meaning of life see the excellent introductions by Cottingham 2003 and Eagleton 2007, and see also Grayling 2001 and Belshaw 2005. For an overview of the converse issues surrounding ‘death,’ see, Enright 1983. 5 Other international instruments providing enumerations are the: American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, article 1; African Charter of Human and People’s Rights article 4; Arab Charter on Human Rights, article 5. 6 Other international instruments providing definitions are the: European Convention on Human Rights, article 2(1); American Convention on Human Rights article 4; Commonwealth of Independent States Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, article 2. 7 One way around this problem is the adoption of additional instruments and most of the contributors to this collection engage with this possibility. 8 General Comment 6(16), UN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Add.1. 9 Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 1986-1987, OAS Doc. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.71, doc. 9 rev. 1, p
- Carla M. Buckley, Krešimir Kamber, Pamela McCormick, David J. Harris(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Council of Europe(Publisher)
First, the scope of the Right to Life marked by the beginning of life to its end remains sensitive to consensus among European states and developments in scientific knowledge. Second, the obligation to protect life continues to be a fertile basis for Convention case law. While it stops short of guaranteeing the necessities of life, such as housing and universal healthcare, the Court applies a dynamic interpretative approach that addresses the many threats to life that exist in Europe today, such as domestic violence, and the vulnerability of persons in detention or hospitalised. Third, the content of the duty to investigate loss of life continues to develop in terms of its requirements in differing forensic and operational contexts and the need for interstate co-operation in the sharing of evidence. Fourth, the circumstances justifying the taking of life by states are undergoing transformation. This aspect can be seen most clearly in relation to the death penalty, which was so entrenched in many European domestic penal laws in 1950 has all but been removed as a permissible deprivation of life by amendments to the text of Article 2 through operation of Protocol No. 6 and No. 13 and in the light of recent European state practice. Furthermore, the Court has devised new evidential rules to address the phenomenon of “disappeared persons” in Europe, and changes in operational contexts for law enforcers, such as terrorist and urban guerrilla policing operations, continue to raise issues about the duties of a democratic state. Finally, there is continued uncertainty as to the relationship between international humanitarian law and the Right to Life under Article 2 although the Court has considered many cases from armed conflict situations, such as from south-east Turkey, South Ossetia and Chechnya
eBook - PDF- Austin H. Kutscher, Samuel C. Klagsbrun, Richard J. Torpie, Robert Debellis, Mahlon S. Hale, Margot Tallmer, Austin H. Kutscher, Samuel C. Klagsbrun, Richard J. Torpie, Robert Debellis, Mahlon S. Hale, Margot Tallmer(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Columbia University Press(Publisher)
While I shall make every effort to be impartial in this presentation, it is only fair to acknowledge that I am biased toward the affirmative in regard to allowing cessation of treatment. To discuss a right to die, one must define death, life, and living in more detail than the unabridged dictionary provides. Living is engag-ing in mentation. 2 It is a dynamic state in both the biological and sociological sense. It is more than mere existence and the functioning of a natural entity. Man is a social being, thriving on interactions with other human beings and also with other forms of living things—plants and animals. Life can be considered to be the biological counterpart to living. Life exists as long as the tissues, organs, and the component cells function to carry on respiration, metabolism, and excretion. 3 Life is purely a physical series of events; it is not interactive except to what is internal to the organism. Living is absolutely dependent upon life, but life can exist without living. It is this issue that will become important in evaluating the question of a right to die. n The issue at hand truly becomes the attempt to provide a definition of death that can be objectively applied in all cases and never found to be in fault. It is a medical question that requires the setting of standards, A Right to Die? 49 the application thereof, and the interpretation of the application. This is the role of the physician, who may (have to), and has, turned to the law for legal support. No state has developed a definition of death nor have they estab-lished criteria for when it occurs. It is a retrospective fact: the patient has died. The same medical advances that can save a life and allow living to continue make it more difficult for the physician to say that death has occurred or that death is occurring.
eBook - PDFEuropean Convention on Human Rights
Commentary
- Christoph Grabenwarter(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Beck/Hart(Publisher)
Article 2 – Right to Life 1. Everyone ’ s Right to Life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law. 2. Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this Article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary: (a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence; (b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained; (c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection. Article 2 – Droit a ` la vie 1. Le droit de toute personne a ` la vie est prote ´ge ´ par la loi. La mort ne peut eˆtre inflige´e a ` quiconque intentionnellement, sauf en exe´cution d ’ une sentence capitale prononce´e par un tribunal au cas ou ` le de ´lit est puni de cette peine par la loi. 2. La mort n ’ est pas conside´re´e comme inflige´e en violation de cet article dans les cas ou ` elle re´sulterait d ’ un recours a ` la force rendu absolument ne´cessaire: (a) pour assurer la de´fense de toute personne contre la violence ille ´gale; (b) pour effectuer une arrestation re´gulie `re ou pour empe ˆcher l ’ e´vasion d ’ une personne re´gulie `rement de´tenue; (c) pour re´primer, conforme´ment a ` la loi, une e ´meute ou une insurrection. Bibliography: Klugmann, Europa ¨ische Menschenrechtskonvention und antiterroristische Maßnah-men, 2002; Mathieu , The Right to Life, Council of Europe Publishing, 2006; Trechsel , Spotlights on Article 2 ECHR, The Right to Life, Studies in honor of Konrad Ginther, 1999, pp. 671 et seq. Leading Cases: ECtHR, 27/9/1995, McCann a.o . v UK, No. 18984/91 (targeted killing of persons who were mistakenly perceived as terrorists); ECtHR, 9/10/1997, Andronicou a. Constantinou v CYP, No. 25052/94 (killing during freeing of hostages); ECtHR, 9/6/1998, L.
eBook - PDFFoundations of Healthcare Ethics
Theory to Practice
- Joanne Grainger, Jãnis T. Ozoliņš(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
The moral divide is clearly drawn between those who espouse the Right to Life of the foetus before birth, and especially after viability, and those who espouse the mother’s right to choose up until birth, even after viability. The former espouse the Right to Life for all persons, including the unborn; the latter do not invoke a Right to Life for a person until birth; there are even some of them who would not invoke the Right to Life until some time after birth, when the baby satisfies their added criteria for personhood. Even if the law accords a mother a right to choose life or death for her child up until the moment of birth, there is a need to concede that the duty to assist the mother to abort her child ought not be imposed on the nurse or doctor who has a conscientious objection to abortion. Diverse philosophical views In contemporary discourse, there is often a meshing of legal and moral concepts by speaking about rights as ‘human rights’. When discussing what ought be recognised as a human right, we inevitably need to fall back on our primary philosophical approach to determining what is right and wrong – what is a necessary precondition for human flourishing and for justice. The utilitarian will argue that something is right because it provides the greatest benefit to the greatest number (or some variant on that calculus). Proponents of natural law, such as legal scholar and philosopher John Finnis, advocate that something is a precondition for the structuring of society and relations, enhancing the prospect that all persons might achieve their full human flourishing as mem- bers of that society and while engaged in those relationships. The Kantian, forever seeking universal rules or maxims in the footsteps of Immanuel Kant (2012), will propose that this entitlement for all and that duty imposed on all 196 FOUNDATIONS OF HEALTHCAR E ETHICS
- Lisa-Marie Komp(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Rather, this duty is formulated in a general fashion. The Court’s case law shows that the duty to protect the Right to Life by law covers a wide range of possible threats, just as the duty to prevent the loss of life does. This becomes clear when looking at the situations in which the Court found this duty to be at play. These include, for example, ensuring proper regulation, selection, training and supervision for the use of force by the police; 84 securing safety on building sites and in buildings; 85 regulating dangerous activities; 86 providing emergency rescue services, 87 disaster prevention and relief; 88 and providing emergency medical services as well as the proper functioning of the healthcare system more generally. 89 Any activity or situation touching upon the safety of persons, therefore, require proper regulation aimed at the protection of the Right to Life. 2.2 Measures Required Under the Duty to Protect the Right to Life by Law As emanates from the Court’s judgement in the case of Öneryildiz v Turkey cited earlier, the duty to protect the Right to Life by law primarily entails a duty to ‘put in place a legislative and administrative framework designed to provide effective deterrence against threats to the Right to Life.’ 90 In general, therefore, the State’s legislative and administrative system must be designed to serve the purpose of safeguarding the Right to Life. However, the Court does not consider it sufficient for the State to put in place an administrative and legislative system that is considered to do so
eBook - PDFA Natural Right to Die
Twenty-Three Centuries of Debate
- Raymond A. Whiting(Author)
- 2001(Publication Date)
- Praeger(Publisher)
The relevance of such concepts to the debate over the "right to die" is that the theory helps to establish the boundaries of permissible action but does not determine which actions, in and of themselves, are good or bad. Under such a construction, once the parameters of government are set, the majority has no 10 A Natural Right to Die power to interfere with the actions that take place within these defined boundaries. It was precisely for the protection of individual rights that the founders placed limits on unrestrained majoritarianism. The importance of these ideas is that they identify American government as a government of limited powers. Natural law principles in the Constitution lead to the recognition of fundamental personal rights. Jacques Maritain argues that the natural law demands the recognition that "every human person has the right to make his own decisions with regard to his personal destiny. . . . The state can forcibly requisition the services of each of us . . . but the state becomes tyrannical if it tries to 'become master of men's souls.'" Put concisely, the essence of natural law principles, as incorporated into the Constitution, is that each American enjoys the right of self-ownership, which may very well include the right to die as one sees fit. Chapter 14 applies the conclusions drawn from the study of the American interpretation of natural law and natural rights theory to the current issue of the "right to die." In reaching the answer to this question, the chapter examines the proper role of the state in such events as passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, and the standards emerging within the U.S. courts. The chapter outlines the need within American society to strike a balance between the impulses of the majority and the liberty interests of the individual.
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