Article: «Er livet et uavhendelig gode?», by Sören Koch

Professor Sören Koch has recently published the article "«Er livet et uavhendelig gode?» Norsk regulering av medvirkning til selvvalgt livsavslutning i lys av nasjonale og internasjonale utviklinger" at the Tidsskrift for Rettsvitenskap. 

Abstract:

The international debate on the legitimacy of assisted dying has recently taken a new turn. In 2007, Penny Lewis argued that this was unlikely to anticipate «legalization of assisted suicide or euthanasia using challenges based on constitutionally entrenched rights in any major common law or European jurisdiction». She was wrong. It seems a judgement by the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) in 2011 paved the way for a major paradigm shift that triggered a wave of legislative and judicial reforms across Europe and beyond. In its case-law the court demands national legislators to proportionally balance the obligation to protect life and the individual’s right to private autonomy, but also at the same time granting the member states a wide margin of appreciation on how to balance these values. Judgements by the Canadian, Italian, Austrian and German Constitutional Court as well as legislative reforms in Spain, Portugal, Austria, Australia and New Zealand are prominent – but by far not the only – examples of courts and legislators applying a right based argumentation to reassess access to assisted suicide under specific circumstances today. Norwegian law – on the other hand – is founded on the assumption that life is an indispensable good (uavhendelig gode) leaving no room for considerations of private autonomy. Still, despite the most recent international developments, a majority of the health committee in the Norwegian Parliament rejected even to assess the applicable law. The paper provides an overview of the applicable law in Norway, its value base and its application in practice. Based on legal dogmatic considerations, an analysis of recent ECtHR case law and discussions in other jurisdictions, the article calls for a critical and science-based assessment of Norwegian law.

Read the article here.