Institute of Euthanasia: Between a Person’s Right to Life and the Right to a Dignified Death: Problems and Challenges in the Implementation of Human Rights of Choice in Lithuania

Abstract

Abstract The title of the scientific article is the problem of euthanasia as a possibility for the implementation of natural human rights in Lithuania and foreign countries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the individual’s right to life and the prohibition of torture in the implementation of euthanasia as one of the natural human rights in Lithuania and foreign countries. This work has theological and comparative methods. The theological method, which leads to the first part of the work, analyzing international and national legal acts regulating natural human rights. The comparative method compares the legal regulations and social differences between countries that have legalized and those that have not legalized euthanasia. The main conclusion of the article - the legalization of euthanasia is one of the possibilities to implement the prohibition of torture in the context of natural human rights. The practical significance of this scientific article is particularly important for states that have not legalized euthanasia, because the main conclusion of this article is proving the obligation of states to legalize euthanasia in order to provide suitable conditions for the realization of natural human rights. The originality of this scientific article is based on the fact that the compatibility of euthanasia in the context of human rights and freedoms and the equating of the illegalization of euthanasia to torture at the national and international level have not been analyzed in any scientific articles. The value of the article is proven by the fact that the authors used only the latest scientific editions of national and international legal acts and the latest and most comprehensive literature.