Category: bills

‘With the second reading of Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill fast approaching, debate persists as to whether limiting eligibility to terminally ill adults could be successfully challenged as discriminatory under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) before the domestic courts and/or the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This blog post does not seek to rehash well-trodden ground in this respect (see here, here and here for posts that discuss it in detail). Rather, it seeks only to contribute a comparative lens which indicates a potential basis upon which the UK Government could justify limiting assisted dying to the terminally ill.’

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UK Constitutional Law Association, 27th November 204

Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org

‘My recent post on Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which seeks to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults and so modify the blanket ban provided by s. 2 of the Suicide Act 1961, has attracted some attention. There I raised questions as to the compatibility of the Bill with articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”), suggesting that extending assisted suicide only to terminally ill adults might be considered unlawfully discriminatory. I argued that there can therefore be no guarantees that the Bill would not have to expand in the future if the UK is to continue to adhere to its obligations under the ECHR. Alex Ruck Keene KC, who represented Noel Conway in his legal challenge to the UK’s blanket ban, has made a similar argument.’

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UK Constitutional Law Association, 19th November 2024

Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org