THE Junta de Andalucia intends to be the first in Spain to give legal and medical aid to terminally ill patients who decide to put an end to treatments which are keeping them alive.
This will give patients the option of being taken off a breathing apparatus and regulate palliative sedation. The patient’s will is to be paramount to any other consideration and the Andalucian Health Service has to ensure that this is the case. If the patient has no living will or cannot express his or her wishes, an ethical committee will decide upon the case.
The aim is to prevent patients from undergoing procedures which can only serve to prolong their suffering when their condition can’t be improved.
The Junta de Andalucia intends for this law, entitled ‘Muerte Digna’ (Dignified Death), to be passed during the current mandate which lasts until 2012, and will mean that Article 20 of the Andalucian Statute will be enforced to its fullest. This statute says that all people have the right to receive adequate treatment against pain and palliative care, and to dignity in the process of their death.
The Health Service considers six possibilities, two of which, direct euthanasia and assisted suicide, will not be legal. The limitation of therapeutic efforts, refusal of treatment, palliative sedation and disconnection in case of death, on the other hand, will be legal, and it will be known as indirect or passive euthanasia.
Something that will also be included in the law is the health care specialists’ possibility of conscientious objection.
Another important aspect is that the patient be allowed to die in their own home, with palliative care on hand if desired. |
