This Thursday, March 18, 2021, the law authorizing euthanasia was adopted in Spain and by a very large majority by Parliament.
This is a measure that will come into force in June in Spain. The country's parliament adopted, this Thursday, March 18, 2021, the bill authorizing euthanasia. This authorization concerns people suffering from a serious and incurable disease or presenting chronic pain which places them in a situation of incapacity. The patient wishing to have recourse to euthanasia must be aware and able to formulate this request in writing. A second confirmation of this choice in writing will be requested 15 days later.
Euthanasia requests will be conditioned on the opinion of the doctor in charge of the patient and health professionals may share their refusal to participate in euthanasia. According to Spain's Minister of Health Carolina Darias, "with this law we are moving towards a more humane and just society (…) for people who find themselves in a situation of great suffering and for their families."
What do we think of euthanasia in France?
Spain is the fourth country in Europe to legalize euthanasia. There are also the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. According to the latest opinion poll on the issue, carried out by Ipsos in November 2020, 85% of Spaniards are in favor of its regularization. In France, the debate is progressing slowly. The deputy Seine-et-Marne Olivier Faure spoke on the subject at the beginning of March 2021 on the set of the program of Public Senate and LCP-National Assembly: "Do we really need the French to speak out? (…) It is 97%, I believe, of French women and men who want this law of freedom", he explained, referring to an Ifop poll published in 2019.
On Thursday March 11, 2021, Socialist Senator Marie-Pierre de La Gontrie presented a bill "aimed at establishing the right to die with dignity." This proposal aimed to reserve this right to patients in "advanced or terminal phase." However, the Senate, with a majority on the right, refused this bill. Minister Olivier Véran, for his part, considered that the subject "requires time for debate, obviously parliamentary, but also for a national debate involving the French, associations and intermediary bodies."