Right to life and the “autonomy of the individual”

The recent Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights on the well-known case of Lambert, which raised the problem of ceasing treatment of paralyzed patient due to «unreasonable obstinacy» is critically analyzed. In this case, the collision of two rights: the right to protection of the patient’s life by the state and the will of the patient, allegedly expressed in other circumstances, about the undesirability of prolonging the agony. The problem was compounded by the uncertainty of the national law.

About the author: Anatoliy I. Kovler – Professor of the National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights (1999–2012).