Spain legalises euthanasia in the face of Catholic outrage

People hold placards that read 'To able to choose to die without suffering' as they celebrate outside Spanish Congress

Credit: Kiko Huesca/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock /Shutterstock

Spain has passed a law legalising euthanasia despite firm opposition to the law from the Catholic Church and right-wing politicians who claim the reform will destroy the country’s Christian culture.  

The 198-138 vote in favour of the law in Congress, the lower house of parliament, was celebrated by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who said it represented a “great social conquest” for Spain.  

Writing on Twitter Socialist party leader Mr Sánchez said the reform was an “advance in freedom, civil rights and dignity”.  

Leaders of the Catholic Church in Spain criticised the law, despite surveys suggesting that some 80 per cent of Spaniards support the regulation of euthanasia.   

Madrid Archbishop Carlos Osoro said during an official day of prayer against the law on Wednesday that assisted death was “nothing more than a short cut when faced by weakness and pain”.  

In Congress, where Left-wing governing parties were joined by almost all regional groups and the liberal Ciudadanos in supporting a law that allows patients whose lives are unbearable due to chronic and incurable illness to be euthanized, the main conservative Popular Party led the opposition to the law, arguing that palliative care could provide a compromise solution.  

La aprobación en el @Congreso_Es de la Ley de #Eutanasia supone una gran conquista social para nuestro país. Avanzamos en libertad, en derechos civiles y en dignidad. Gracias a los grupos que han apoyado esta norma y a las personas y colectivos que han trabajado para conseguirlo. pic.twitter.com/Px09WoJ1od

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) December 17, 2020

The far-Right Vox was more vocal as it championed the official Catholic position, claiming euthanasia would become “an industry of death” in Spain.  

“Euthanasia is the destruction of our culture,” thundered Vox MP Lourdes Méndez, adding that it was especially painful that the law should be passed “when the world is about to celebrate the birth of the son of God”.   

Campaigners for euthanasia celebrated outside Congress after the vote was over.

"Once this comes into force, we will be able to face the end of our lives with the peace of mind that it will not be mandatory to endure situations that can be considered intolerable," said Fernando Marín, vice-president of Spain’s association for the Right to Die with Dignity (DMD).  

DMD said that where euthanasia has been legalised, in the Benelux countries, Canada and some US states, assisted suicide accounted for between one and four per cent of deaths.  

The issue of euthanasia has been hotly debated in Spain since Ramón Sampedro waged a personal campaign to end his suffering from tetraplegia in the 1990s. His suicide in 1998 was recreated in the 2004 film The Sea Inside, starring Javier Bardem.