“Dignity in Living and in Dying”: The Henry H. H. Remak Memorial Lecture

Abstract

Although no express right to die with dignity is found in definitive instruments on human rights, the Charter of the United Nations nonetheless addresses the need to protect and safeguard the essential dignity and worth of the human person during life and, arguably, also at death. Indeed, the United Nations has taken an active role in codifying a mandate to ensure human dignity be given and observed within various contexts of International Law. A powerful interface exists between human dignity and the right to life; for, many of the claims to a right to die with dignity actually reaffirm a more general commitment to a shared life of loving and of being set within the framework of living a full life in dignity. Since the conclusion of World War II, a number of European constitutions, in particular, acknowledge presently dignity as a first principle, a constitutional value, a normative standard for policy making, a constitutional right or even an absolute right . The current debate over the issue of dignitary status is broadened contextually when notions of death with dignity are introduced and examined. This Article probes the efficacy of the present conflicts arising from this extended debate and concludes that the very right to self determination, dignity, and to life itself, should be acknowledged and respected especially at its end-stage. Clear evidence of this progressiveness is to be found, domestically, in the United States by state legislative actions which allow pharmacologic assistance at death for terminally ill individuals. These actions may be seen, and applauded, as a nascent response to similar global actions allowed, notably, in The Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland. Judicial responses to this matter, however, remain guarded and indecisive.