Eutanasi eller assisterat självmord- Var går gränsen?

Sammanfattning: The issue of mercy killing is an ongoing discussion worldwide. In Sweden, assisted suicide is not punishable. Euthanasia, on the other hand, is prohibited and judged according to chapter 3 § 2 of the Swedish penal code. This essay aims to account for the legal demarcation between assisted suicide and eutha-nasia and to analyze this demarcation with the help of the principle of legality. The legal position is presented using the legal dogmatic method and the result is dis-cussed through a legal analytical method. The material used in this paper con-sists of legal text, preparatory work, legal commentaries, case law and doc-trine relevant to the report. The second chapter deals with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and rulings from the European Court of Human rights. What has emerged is that the right to life in Article 2 does not imply a corresponding right to die, but the individual's right to decide about his death is covered by Article 8. However, in the assessments, the Eu-ropean Court of Human rights has taken great account of the doctrine of mar-gin of appreciation. The third and fourth chapters explain fundamental parts of the general criminal law that are of relevance for further discussion. What has been touched upon are basic requirements for criminalization, the regulation of murder and man-slaughter and the distinction between perpetrator and complicity, as well as the structure and content of the concept of crime. In the fifth chapter, two legal cases are presented that have helped determine where the line between assisted suicide and euthanasia lies. In NJA 1979 p. 802, the defendant is convicted of manslaughter but in RH 1996:69 the de-fendant is acquitted. In the sixth chapter, the results of the essay are presented. The decisive factor in the delineation is who performs the killing act. If it is A himself, it is con-sidered assisted suicide, but if it is B who does it, it is considered euthanasia. The current regulation cannot be considered a violation of the principle of le-gality, but there may be a need for a changed view of the current distinction because there is vagueness in the difference between the punishable act. This, in turn, can undermine faith in the regulation of mercy killing.