Doxit No 21 - The Push Back: Towards a New Human Rights-based Focus

Exit Podcast - The Good Death

In early April, Dutch activist group, CLW launched legal action against the Dutch state arguing that the prohibition on assisted suicide and assisted suicide drugs should be abolished. These should be abolished because they prevent self-determination at the end of life. If self-determination is a fundamental human right, they argued that a nation State that keeps the right un-exercisable makes the right a false one and the State is acting unlawfully.

The Dutch have taken their lead from recent constitutional court decisions in Germany and Austria which confirm that self-determination is a human right that the government should not interfere in. What is more, self-determination at the end of life exists irrespective of age and health/ illness status. This is to say that all people of sound mind have the right to determine when and how they die; they don't need a doctor to give permission or tell them how.