The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has agreed to hear an appeal against a ruling which found that a law restricting access to assisted suicide was in breach of the Convention on Human Rights because it lacked clarity.

This is the same reason why the court found Ireland’s law on abortion breached the Convention.  

A panel of the ECHR ruled in May that the Swiss prohibition on lethal poison in situations where a person is not suffering from a fatal disease violated Article 8 of the Convention (right to respect for private and family life).

However the Court acknowledged that the Convention did not grant a right to assisted suicide; instead, they ruled that the Swiss law was too vague.

The Swiss government appealed the case, and the Grand Chamber is now set to hear it.

“The government has an obligation to protect life, not facilitate death,” said Paul Coleman, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a group which defends religious freedom and the right to life in international courts.  

He added: “Claims to personal autonomy do not override national laws designed to protect the weak and vulnerable. We trust the Grand Chamber will support this principle, which is entirely consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights.”  

Although Switzerland is one of only four European countries to allow doctor-prescribed death in certain circumstances, individuals can obtain sodium pentobarbital, a drug that can be used to commit suicide, only after a medical examination and prescription by a doctor.  

Alda Gross, a Swiss citizen, failed to find a doctor prepared to prescribe the lethal substance to her, so she appealed to the national courts in 2009.

The Swiss courts held that the restrictive conditions placed on the drug are in place to prevent abuse and cannot be overridden in the absence of a medical prescription. They also noted that Gross “does not suffer from a fatal disease.”

The Gross v. Switzerland case is the most recent attempt to create a “right” to assisted suicide under the European Convention.

In a very similar case, Haas v. Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights in 2011 unanimously rejected the claim that the country had an obligation to assist individuals in committing suicide.