Strasbourg Court: the conviction of a doctor for giving advice on how to commit suicide is legal

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· The Strasbourg Court dismissed the complaint of a Danish doctor who had given advice on how to take his own life.

In 2019, Dr. Svend Lings was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence for the offense of assisted suicide. He also lost the right to practice.

The doctor is responsible for the death of at least two people.

In 2020, the perpetrator complained to the European Court of Human Rights for a violation of his right to freedom of expression.

· The Ordo Iuris Institute intervened, pointing out that freedom of speech does not authorize anyone to encourage and support others to commit suicide.

· In 2022 the Court found that there had been no violation of the applicant's rights.

Svend Lings is a retired doctor, founder of the Læger for Aktiv Dødshjælp Association, which demands legalization of this practice. After retiring in 2010, Dr. Lings has specialized in encouraging patients to commit suicide by providing detailed information on how to do so. To this end, he published a guide on the Internet containing information on 300 different pharmaceuticals that can kill yourself. The doctor also conducts individual consultations and gives interviews in the media.

In one interview, he admitted to the interviewer that he had given a patient suffering from pulmonary disease an injection of Fenemal (a drug for epilepsy, which is lethal in high doses). Consequently, in 2017, the Danish Patient Protection Authority withdrew Dr. Lings, the right to practice, and also submitted a notification to the prosecutor's office about the commission of the so-called the offense of assisted suicide (Article 240 of the Danish Criminal Code). Assisted suicide is a form of euthanasia prohibited in Denmark. The promotion of euthanasia, however, is partially prohibited, only if it is targeted at specific individuals.

The prosecution determined that Lings was responsible for the deaths of at least two people who were given detailed advice on how to commit suicide. One of his victims was an 85-year-old old woman who did not suffer from any serious disease but was tired of living. Lings advised her what pharmaceuticals to take and recommended that "to be 100% sure" she put a plastic bag over her head, tightening it around her neck with a rubber band. A few weeks later, the old lady was found dead in her apartment with a plastic bag over her head.

In 2019, Svend Lings was sentenced to a suspended 60-day prison sentence. In 2020, he filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, pointing out that his conviction was a violation of his right to freedom of speech. The Ordo Iuris Institute intervened in the case by submitting an amicus curiae brief, in which he emphasized that states have the right to protect human life by prosecuting people who, instead of helping people with suicidal thoughts, contribute to their death, confirming them in the decision and providing advice on how do it.

In 2022, the Court dismissed Svend Lings's complaint, pointing out that Art. 240 of the Danish Criminal Code aims to protect public morals and the right to life. At the same time, he emphasized that nothing in his jurisprudence indicates the existence of "the right to assisted suicide", including the right to provide individual advice on how to commit suicide.

- The judgment of the Tribunal in Strasbourg confirms the previous line of jurisprudence, according to which, in matters of moral controversy in Europe, states have a wide margin of discretion, which means that they can prosecute acts considered contrary to the so-called public morality. On the one hand, the Court has maintained its - in my view - wrongly notion that freedom of speech includes the right to inform the public about the availability of controversial treatments such as abortion or euthanasia, even if prohibited in a given country. On the other hand, it made it clear that it did not include the power to provide individual advice to specific people. This means that doctors who fail to their vocation, who advise patients against the law on how to take their own lives, cannot evade criminal liability, invoking the protection under Art. 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights - noted Weronika Przebierała, Director of the International Law Center of the Ordo Iuris Institute.

Lings v. Denmark case, ECtHR judgment of April 12, 2022.