A bill to make euthanasia legal in Spain is to be considered by the lower house of parliament in Madrid. Drafted by the governing Socialist Party (PSOE), the bill would make euthanasia a new personal right [1] that would be available through Spain’s public healthcare system. It has the support of all the main parties except for the opposition Popular Party (PP).
If the bill becomes law, adults with a terminal illness and those with serious and chronic disabilities could request assisted suicide from the public healthcare system.
PP spokeswoman Pilar Cortés called it “a sad day.”
“To talk about euthanasia is to talk about failure, to admit a political, professional and medical defeat,” she said. Cortés considered it “a failure of society” that politics is incapable of “offering solutions other than dying.”
She also claimed that “given time, exceptional situations will turn into habitual situations” because it will be seen as “a cheaper solution” than palliative care. She said that in The Netherlands there are around 1,000 cases of involuntary euthanasia a year.