Some 180 people have died in Spain in the last year by euthanasia, since the entry into force of the legislation that allowed medically assisted death in the country, on June 25, 2021, according to official data.
“We helped 180 people to die with dignity, as they decided,” said the Spanish Minister of Health, Carolina Darías, at a conference in Madrid that marked the first year of this legislation, which made Spain one of the few countries in the world to allow access to euthanasia for people with “serious and incurable disease”.
Of these 180 people who were sacrificed in Spain, 22 donated their organs, with which 68 transplants were performedthat “represent an improvement in the lives of many people and remember that dying is also an act of generosity”, considered the minister.
“It is the celebration of the first year of life of a right that dignifies us as human beings and as a society”, considered Carolina Darías, for whom Spanish legislation establishes access with more guarantees “to one of the most valuable assets of the human being” . condition: will and dignity”.
The law entered into force a year ago in Spain and its implementation corresponded to the administrations of each autonomous community, which did not happen in the same way and at the same pace in all of them.
The minister asked for “the same speed” to “give the same guarantees and so that all people have the same rights, wherever they live”, but thanked the regions, the health professionals and the scientific community for the effort to bring the law into practice.
According to currently known data, It was in the region of Catalonia where there were more requests for euthanasia, 137, and 60 have already completed the process.
Spain was the fourth European country to decriminalize euthanasiaafter the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
In Portugal, the Assembly of the Republic has twice approved laws for the decriminalization of euthanasia who had presidential vetoes.
On June 9, new initiatives from PS, BE, PAN and IL were generally approved.
Spanish legislation allows euthanasia (death of the patient, by his will, through the administration of substances by health professionals) and physician-assisted suicide (when it is the person himself who ingests the substances).
Adults who suffer from a serious and incurable disease or a serious, chronic and impossible condition that causes them “intolerable physical or mental suffering” with no possibility of cure or improvement, may request medical assistance in dying, a benefit that will be included in the Spanish National Health System.
The patient must confirm their wish to die at least four times throughout the processwhich may take a little over a month from the time you first apply, and at any time you can withdraw or postpone euthanasia.
The law also provides for the right of doctors to conscientious objection and establishes the creation of an Assurance and Evaluation Commission in each Spanish autonomous community made up of doctors and jurists to monitor each case.
Source: Observadora
