Human Rights Considerations of Euthanasia

Abstract

The fact that the right to life, as a fundamental right, is inalienable, cannot be over-emphasized. This position has been severally codified and re-enacted internationally, regionally and municipally in almost all corners of the universe. In some jurisdictions, like Nigeria, the prima lex of the land houses this right and guards it jealously, as the bedrock upon which all other rights thrive. Euthanasia has always provided the needed controversy. For a man to live, must he be willing to live? Does the right to life correlate to a right to die? How about the exercise of one's right to life to the detriment of another's, as in the case of fetal rights? These and many other questions usually arise when instances of mercy-killing are mentioned. This research throws some light at what euthanasia is considered as by various ideologists and Human Rights matters that arise in the exercise of same.