Euthanasia

a debate between life and private autonomy from the perspective of human dignity

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the possibility of regulating euthanasia as a way to ensure the full exercise of private autonomy of terminally ill or incurably ill individuals. First, the term euthanasia was defined, its classification according to modes of execution, and the concepts of orthothanasia, dysthanasia, misthanasia and assisted suicide were presented. After that, a brief survey of euthanasia in comparative law and in the current legal system was carried out. Later, an analysis was made of the principle of human dignity, the right to life, and private autonomy, and Robert Alexy's weighting technique was presented to solve the collision of fundamental rights related to the issue. Also contributing to the proposed objective was the analysis of the fundaments used in the judgment of the Argument of Noncompliance with Fundamental Precept no. 54. Finally, the reflections imposed by the discussion led to the recognition of the possibility of regulating euthanasia in situations where the patient is terminally ill or with an incurable and degenerative disease.