The right to receive aid in dying in the context of euthanasia

A new fundamental right? Critical commentary on SSTC 19/2023 and 94/2023

Abstract

This paper critically analyzes Judgments 19/2023 and 94/2023 of the Spanish Constitutional Court on the constitutional validity of the Organic Law regulating euthanasia (2021). The Court has ruled that the Spanish legal regulation is fully compatible with the Constitution. Moreover, it has found a “new” fundamental right, the right of self-determination with respect to one’s own death in euthanasia contexts, in the penumbra of the right to personal integrity of article 15 of the Constitution, read in the light of human dignity and the free development of personality of article 10.1 of the Constitution and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, especially the judgment in Mortier v. Belgium (2022) Although the author agrees with the judgement, he is critical of some elements of the interpretation used by the Court and of the weak control of legal guarantees with respect to the State’s duty to protect life (art. 15 of the Constitution).