Licens att döda : Ett lagförslag

Sammanfattning

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are a complex and sensitive topic. The purpose of this essay is met by investigating and answering two main questions. Firstly, to investigate whether there is a predominant acceptance as well as necessary conditions for some form of Swedish legislation on euthanasia and/or assisted suicide. Secondly, through mainly an interdisciplinary method, to investigate what the outlines of a Swedish law on euthanasia and/or assisted suicide should be to ensure the function of the preliminary law in the Swedish legal context. Please note that I am presuming an imaginary situation where a special regulation on legalized euthanasia and/or assisted suicide will be introduced into Swedish legislature. Therefore, this essay does not investigate whether euthanasia or assisted suicide should be introduced or not, nor whether I consider that to be the case. After the first investigation, focused on EU-law, applicable national law, relevant legal cases, the euthanasia and assisted suicide debate together with the public opinion, I reached the conclusion that Sweden in general is open for some form of legalized euthanasia and/or assisted suicide and that the necessary conditions are in place to bring forth a legislative proposal. After further investigation, involving an international outlook on euthanasia and assisted suicide legislation together with all the other sections of the essay, I found that a Swedish legislation on euthanasia should be based on the Oregon-model with a few deviations. Some of the deviations I found to be necessary are: (1) That both assisted suicide and a dynamic form of euthanasia should be legalized to capture the individuals that should be covered by the law without risking a change in the general sense of justice. (2) The introduction of a special care facility with specially trained doctors. Finally, (3) a due-care-criteria for no remaining alternatives that could give the patient a longer- and at the same time relatively normal and trouble-free life to avoid exploitation of the new law contrary to its purpose.