A Dignified End: A Right to Live, Die or Exist? (2017)

People generally do not know the value of what they have until it is gone. Basic functions such as eating unaided are never noticed until one is no longer able to perform them. This paper attempts to answer the question of whether terminally ill, and or severely disabled people have the right to choose when to end their lives on their own terms or not. The paper uses the UDHR, EU convention, ICCPR and constitutions of specific states as well as court cases regarding the issue to dissuade whether assisted suicide is a right or not. The theoretical frame work of this paper is based on the Global Model of Human Rights by Kai Moller. There is more to life than just existing. Being alive is not what matters, but the quality of the life lived that does. If life was about merely existing we would be no different than shrubs.

Alkurd, Leena. A Dignified End: A Right to Live, Die or Exist?. Birzeit’s Working Papers in Legal Studies, MA students papers module, 11/2017.

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