The law on euthanasia has entered into force in Spain: it is the seventh country in the world to approve it

The law authorizing euthanasia in Spain entered into force this Friday, thus the country becomes one of the few in the world to allow a patient suffering from an incurable disease to die to put an end to his suffering.

The text “responds to the existing social demand around this question“And contains “guarantee“in order to limit the use of euthanasia, said Thursday the Ministry of Health about the law, adopted in March by the Parliament. Spain is the seventh country in the world to decriminalize euthanasia, after the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Colombia and Luxembourg.

The law allows both euthanasia –when the medical team causes the patient to die– like him medically assisted suicide, that is to say when the patient takes the dose of the product prescribed to kill himself.

The text provides that anyone with a disease “falls and incurable“, or suffer crippling chronic pain, can ask medical assistance in dying and to avoid “intolerable suffering”.

The conditions are however strict: the person who requests it must be able and “aware“When making the request, which must be formulated in writing and “without external pressure”, and renew 15 days later.

The doctor can reject the request if you feel that the criteria are not met, or make a conscientious objection. The request must be approved by another physician and receive approval from an evaluation committee.

The Catholic Church and conservative parties opposed the measure. The Popular Party, the main opposition to the leftist government of Pedro Sanchez, presented this Thursday an appeal against the law before the Constitutional Court.

Live or die with dignity

“The right to die with dignity and the right to live with dignity are compatible, even complementary. If it was done well, it would be to have covered the whole range of options that every human being should have in relation to his own life, “he argues with the EFE agency. Jorge Murillo, patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Palliative care in Spain are far from having the same availability per patient as the rest of European countries where euthanasia is also regulated.

“We know that around 75,000 Spanish patients die each year without having access to a palliative care service», Tells EFE the specialist in this field, Marcos Gómez Santos.

Despite the social demand that led Spain to approve this law, pro-life associations such as HazteOir.org and the right to life they say they are against.

The law must also deal with Unconstitutionality appeal filed by the Conservative Popular Party (PP) and the ultra-right formation Vox, who voted against the standard, and who consider that it violates a fundamental right such as the right to life.

“The Constitutional (Court) now has in its hands the obligation to guarantee the right to life and the government to draft a law on palliative care which protects life, and which does not lead us down a slippery slope as we have already seen in the Netherlands, ”he said. Rosana Ribera de Gracia, spokesperson for Right to Life.

In 2019, the Regional Verification Commissions (RRCs) of the Netherlands received 6,361 notifications of euthanasia. It is 4.2% of the total number of people who died that year, which is an increase 3.8% compared to 2018, according to the Central Statistical Office of the European country.

“There is no information to indicate that there is a slippery slope in the Netherlands, that is to say that no one’s life is in danger. There was not a single homicide, because the doctors do not become executioners as the fundamentalists say ”, he explains to EFE Fernando Marín, vice-president of Right to Die with Dignity.

A right claimed for years

The televised voluntary death of paraplegic Ramón Sampedro in 1998, launched in Spain the debate on social conscience for the right to die with dignity. His case resurfaced in 2004 following the success of the Oscar-winning film. “The Sea Inside”, inspired by his life, which starred actor Javier Bardem.

Sampedro died after ingesting a cyanide preparation provided to him, after 29 years of illness and after losing the legal battle he started in 1993 to have euthanasia applied to him. He himself recorded the video of his death so that those who helped him with the preparations would not be penalized.

A case that recurred years later in the history of Maribel Tellaetxe, a patient with Alzheimer’s, whose widower, Txema Lorente, has become a recognized defender of euthanasia in Spain.

“My wife, Maribel, was treated beautifully in the last few months before her death, but palliative care never restored her autonomy, her speech or her memory.», He assured EFE and he underlined the difficulty of regulating the law with regard to mental illnesses.

“She said that when she didn’t have autonomy, when she didn’t know us, when they didn’t know who we each were, when she didn’t have the capacity to love; she didn’t want to live like that, a stroke of sadness because my wife, Maribel, could not take advantage of this right “, he explained.

With information from AFP and EFE

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