Human Rights and Euthanasia

Euthanasia, or voluntary assisted suicide, has been the
subject of much moral, religious, philosophical, legal and
human rights debate in Australia. At the core of this
debate is how to reconcile competing values: the desire of
individuals to choose to die with dignity when suffering,
and the need to uphold the inherent right to life of every
person, as recognised by article 6(1) of the ICCPR.

Several legislative attempts have been made to legalise
euthanasia in parts of Australia. However, at present, it
remains unlawful.

One of these attempts was the Rights of the Terminally
Ill Act 1995 (NT), which allowed for medically assisted
voluntary euthanasia at the request of a terminally ill
person. This Act is discussed in Human Rights and
Euthanasia, an occasional paper which examines the
relationship between euthanasia and international human
rights law (see below). Shortly after this paper was
published, the federal Parliament made Rights of the
Terminally Ill Act 1995 (NT) inoperative by amending the
Federal Parliament of the Northern Territory (Self-
Government) Act 1978 (Cth).