Bill Legalising Euthanasia Approved By Spain’s Lower House

BILL legalising euthanasia approved by Spain’s lower house of parliament

Spain took a big step closer to legalising euthanasia on Thursday, December 17 as the bill was passed by a large majority – 198 to 138 – by the Congress of Deputies. There were two abstentions. The law will now go to the Senate, and if approved, Spain will become the sixth country in the world and the fourth in Europe to legalise euthanasia.

During the parliamentary debate, the socialist deputy María Luisa Carcedo, said that the new regulation would be “an advance in civil rights, which will bring more freedom to citizens” and in no case is it “an imposition of the State.” “It is the patient who decides, the law only establishes the conditions and procedures in which this new right to die can be exercised,” she said.

In Spain, according to the proposed text, the patient would be suffering from a severe, chronic and crippling illness which prevents them from being self-sufficient, or suffering from a serious and incurable disease causing constant unbearable physical or mental suffering which cannot be alleviated to a bearable degree.

They should also be over 18, legally resident in Spain, and conscious at the time of the request.

It is now most likely that the bill will go directly from the Senate to the BOE (Official State Gazette) and will come into force three months after its publication, meaning that euthanasia could be legal in Spain from May next year.

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