Answer:
Article 2 of the Human Rights Act protects your right to life.
This means that nobody, including the Government, can try to end your life. It also means the Government should take appropriate measures to safeguard life by making laws to protect you and, in some circumstances, by taking steps to protect you if your life is at risk.
Public authorities should also consider your right to life when making decisions that might put you in danger or that affect your life expectancy.
If a member of your family dies in circumstances that involve the state, you may have the right to an investigation. The state is also required to investigate suspicious deaths and deaths in custody.
The courts have decided that the right to life does not include a right to die.
Separately, Protocol 13, Article 1 of the Human Rights Act makes the death penalty illegal in the UK.
Article 2: Right to life
1. Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which the penalty is provided by law.
2. Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this Article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:
in defence of any person from unlawful violencein order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained, andin action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.
