Dutch court rejects challenge to assisted suicide ban

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch court on Wednesday upheld the Netherlands' ban on assisted suicide, a setback for activists who said the prohibition infringes on their right to determine when their lives end.

The Hague District Court rejected the activists' argument that the ban violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

The “right to decide for oneself about one’s own end of life is indeed protected” by the convention, the court said in a written statement. “However, this right to self-determination does not go so far that there is also a right to obtain assisted suicide.”

Frits Spangenberg, chairperson of the group Cooperative Last Will, which brought the case along with 29 individual plaintiffs, said he was disappointed by the ruling, but vowed to fight on. He said he would study the decision with lawyers before deciding whether to appeal.