존엄하게 죽을 권리에 관한 연구

This article aims to suggest that the right to die with dignity should be recognized as a constitutional right. The development of medical science and technology has made it possible to sustain the life of the terminally ill by medical treatment. However this has caused ethical and legal debates concerning euthanasia or death with dignity. These debates have failed to reach a consensus on the matter of euthanasia due to its conceptional ambiguity and scholars' negative approach to the problem. The appropriate direction of dealing with the problem of euthanasia is to recognize the right to die with dignity as a constitutional right. The legal foundations of the right to die with dignity are as follows: 1) all human beings have the dignity and value as a person, 2) every human beings has the right to personal autonomy, 3) the right to die is one of the unenumerated constitutional rights. The right to die with dignity means that all human beings have the right to decide the time and method of dying on the basis of autonomy. The right to die with dignity also includes not only the right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment but also under some strict conditions the right to require active aid in dying. Like other rights the right to die with dignity can be restricted by harm principle and right abuse prohibition principle.