STRASBOURG, France (CN) — Suffering from the same motor neurone disease as famed physicist Stephen Hawking, human rights lawyer Dániel Karsai told judges at Europe’s top rights court on Tuesday they could help him die with dignity.
Karsai is asking the European Court of Human Rights to strike down a Hungarian law which goes beyond banning euthanasia and also outlaws helping anyone travel to a country where they have the right to die.
“Sooner or later, I will reach the point of meaningless existence,” Karsai told the seven-judge panel.
The 46-year-old sat in his wheelchair next to his legal team at the Strasbourg-based court, making both the first and last arguments on his own behalf. Karsai worked at the court for four years in the early 2000s.
He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, in July 2021. In the United States, it is often called Lou Gehrig's disease after the Yankees first baseman who died of the condition in 1941.
Hungarian law forbids euthanasia and all forms of assisted suicide, and also claims extraterritorial jurisdiction over anyone who helps someone travel abroad to end their life. If a friend or family member were to help Karsai travel to another country where euthanasia is legal, they would face a sentence of five years in jail in Hungary.
Lawyers for Budapest argue that helping anyone die runs counter to the European Convention of Human Rights, the 1953 treaty that underpins the court. Euthanasia is "grounded in an assumption that it is better to be dead than to live with a disability," Zoltán Tallodi, a lawyer with the Hungarian justice ministry, told judges.
Tallodi’s arguments focused heavily on the supposed “ableism” of euthanasia. He claimed that legalizing the practice would lead to governments simply killing off anyone too infirm to be seen as productive.
“No one should be faced with this,” Karsai said in his opening remarks. He cannot walk or care for himself without help, describing the situation as “extremely humiliating.” ALS is incurable and will eventually leave him in a vegetative state.
In the landmark 2002 decision Pretty v. United Kingdom, the court found the United Kingdom was allowed to ban assisted suicide in another case involving someone with ALS. Diane Pretty wanted her husband to help her die, but British authorities refused to guarantee he wouldn’t be prosecuted. The court ruled that the law was intended to safeguard people from abuse and wasn’t in violation of the convention. Pretty died of complications of ALS less than a month after the decision was released.
“The convention is a living instrument,” Peter Stanicz, one of Karsai’s lawyers, argued in response to questions from judges. Several countries in Europe have allowed euthanasia and assisted suicide and the court often considers how prevalent a practice is among its member states when issuing a decision.
Spain legalized the practice in 2021 and Portugal passed similar legislation early this year that has yet to come into effect. The court ruled last year that a man’s rights weren’t violated when his mother died by euthanasia in Belgium.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Karsai said he hoped the court would go further and rule that euthanasia was a protected right. Allowing for assistance abroad would be “a minimum victory,” he said.
The lawyer also said that his experience working at the court and representing clients in Strasbourg helped shape his case. “My personal problem became my professional life,” he said.
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