Death alive and kicking: Dianne Pretty, legal violence and the sacred

Abstract

This paper explores the “religion of law” and the “religion in law” through analysis of judgements in the case of Dianne Pretty's challenge of the law against assisted suicide on human rights grounds. It is argued that the core articles of the religion of law, close attention to text and construction of consistency, are used to affirm the Judeo-Christian values of suffering and the sanctity of life. The affirmation of the religion in law occurs in the name of the law; however, traces of religious origin are clear in the use of the phrase “sanctity of life” as well as in the way the court legally blesses Dianne Pretty's suffering. Because of the law's monopoly on death and violence, Pretty is condemned to live, her own desires sacrificed in the interests of society. The religion in law is retrievable through application of the core values of the religion of law. Close attention to the language of the judgments uncovers an absence of legal justice (i.e. consistency) as well as a breach of the terms of the Human Rights Act in terms of respect for religion. The religion in law is imposed on Dianne Pretty such that her religious freedom, guaranteed by legislation, is curtailed.