Spanish euthanasia law allowed 180 people to commit suicide

In June, it was a year ago that the Spanish government introduced euthanasia legislation, even though the Ethics Council was critical of the new law. Looking back, 180 people committed euthanasia with the help of Spanish health care. That is reported by Evangelical Focus.

During a press conference, Carolina Darias, the Minister of Health, said that the number of people that made use of the possibility of euthanasia shows that “the implementation of this right is being carried out adequately” and that it made the “National Health System more inclusive and universal.”

According to the statistics of the euthanasia report, 28 of the people who chose euthanasia were organ donors. That led to 68 transplants.

Palliative care proposal on hold

The Euthanasia Law met much criticism at the time of its implementation. The Bioethics Committee made many critical remarks, after which the government decided to replace 11 of the 12 members. That was reported earlier by CNE.news.

Furthermore, the law remains to be criticised, for example, for its application being territorially imbalanced. It turns out that euthanasia is carried out more often in regions where the Guarantees and Evaluation Commissions have been most active. These commissions evaluate and manage euthanasia requests. In Catalonia, these committees have been very active, and 60 cases were processed. In Andalusia, only 11 requests were dealt with, as it is a region where the Committees still need to be established.

The Spanish Evangelical Alliance rejects the euthanasia legislation in Spain. According to the organisation, the law is too broad, as it “regulates and decriminalises euthanasia under certain conditions, but in practice facilitates the inclusion of innumerable chronic pathologies.” They plead for better palliative care, which would prevent many cases of euthanasia. However, a draft regulation on the matter has been on pause since 2019, Evangelical Alliance reports.