Constitutional Analysis On The Construction Of Euthanasia Legal System In China

Euthanasia is the whole process when people who suffer from an incurabledisease and have no hope to be cured are helped to end their lives without any painaccording to their own requirements because of their mental and physical pain. Withthe development of the society, euthanasia cases occur frequently. The euthanasialegislation has become a problem in urgent need of solution around the world, and ithas provoked an unprecedented fierce debate in the modern jurisprudential circle. Atpresent, the appeal for euthanasia legislation has been increasing in the world. AsChina’s first case of euthanasia occurred in the1980s, our country also began to payclose attention to euthanasia.From the perspective of theory, the legalization of euthanasia is not beyond thecontent, spirit and principles of the constitution. The euthanasia legislation haven’tcaused a collision between the right of life and the right of human dignity, and it isalso not in conflict with our country’s obligation of protecting human lives. Thegovernment shall fulfill its obligation to protect the citizen’s right of life. However, italso should respect the choice of the citizens when the terminally ill patients who aresuffering great pain want to give up their lives in order to keep the human dignity.The rights of life and human dignity have no difference of high and low value. Eachcitizen who is eligible for euthanasia can give up life on the basis of protecting humandignity, which is also another way for the country to protect the citizens’ basic rights.From the view of practice, with the development of society, people’s concept on deathhas changed radically; more and more groups appealing for the legalization ofeuthanasia have been set up and grown rapidly; more and more movements calling forrealization of the legalization of euthanasia are developing gradually; and the regionalpoll shows that euthanasia has a high degree of support. What’s more, in the judicialpractice, because there is no specific legal norms, euthanasia cases with the samecharacters have been processed with different modes in different courts, whichobviously violates the basic principle of the constitution: everyone is equal before thelaw and highlights the demand of a unified euthanasia system in the judicial practice.All the above show that there is a real possibility of setting up euthanasia system.As the environment of euthanasia legislation is getting mature in our country，thelegal status of euthanasia should be confirmed. When detailed design of the construction of euthanasia is carried out, the principle of supremacy of the right to life,the constitutional law reservation principle, proportion principle, the constitutionprinciple of due process of law, etc. must be strictly observed. At the same time, inorder to respect and protect those patients eligible for euthanasia, the correspondinglegal responsibility shall be set up for the violation of euthanasia system in case ofeuthanasia abuse and adverse social impact.