Ministers approve dignified death bill

THE Spanish Government has given the go-ahead to a draft bill regulating an individual’s rights in the final stages of life. The Council of Ministers came to the decision after studying a report prepared by the Minister for Health and Social Policy and Equality, Leire Pajin, on the draft bill.

The law guarantees a series of rights for all those people approaching the end of their lives, including the right to healthcare, information, to make decisions, to pain relief, to be accompanied and the right to privacy.

Leire Pajín explained that the law ‘does not legalise euthanasia or legalise assisted suicide; indeed, its only aim is to ensure that patient intervention avoids unnecessary suffering and so-called  therapeutic cruelty’.

“Our intention is to lessen the pain, and bring to an end the suffering of persons who, in the last few days of  their life, suffer in a clear and evident manner,”  the minister emphasised.

Pajín said that when a patient reaches the stage of being finally incapacitated, it will be the duty   of    medicalpersonnel   involved   ‘toseek  the  opinion  of  atleast  another  member  ofstaff  directly  involved  inthe patient’s care and thatof  the  immediate  familyto ensure a balanced viewis  taken  in  the  clinicaldecision’.