Koch v. Germany resource page
News releases: 7/23/2012 | 10/21/2010
Comment on European court's assisted suicide decision
Monday, Jul 23, 2012
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Roger Kiska regarding Thursday’s decision by the European Court of Human Rights in Koch v. Germany:
“The state reserves the right to protect life. It should not be compelled to aid in destroying it. This decision undermines that sovereign right even though the opinion stopped short of declaring a right to assisted suicide. Saying that Germany violated the privacy rights of a man because it refused his demand for lethal drugs so that his wife could kill herself is an unprecedented procedural nightmare with no basis in the European Convention on Human Rights. The court found procedural ‘penumbras’ emanating from non-existent rights in Article 8 of the Convention, and that opens the door to confusion and abuse.”
“The state reserves the right to protect life. It should not be compelled to aid in destroying it. This decision undermines that sovereign right even though the opinion stopped short of declaring a right to assisted suicide. Saying that Germany violated the privacy rights of a man because it refused his demand for lethal drugs so that his wife could kill herself is an unprecedented procedural nightmare with no basis in the European Convention on Human Rights. The court found procedural ‘penumbras’ emanating from non-existent rights in Article 8 of the Convention, and that opens the door to confusion and abuse.”
- Summary analysis of ECHR’s Koch v. Germany decision
- International legal updates
Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is an alliance-building legal ministry that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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