When the euthanasia law was approved in June 2021, support for the initiative was very broad in Spanish society, which had experienced emblematic cases such as that of Ramon Sampedro (died in 1998), played by Javier Bardem in Alejandro Amenábar's film Mar adentro, or that of Ángel Hernández, the man who helped his wife, María José Carrasco, to die in 2019 and who was acquitted of the crime of aiding suicide once the law came into force. According to a CIS barometer from January 2021, 72% were in favor of the law and only 15% against.

The Supreme Court has thwarted yet another attempt by the ultraconservative Catholic group Christian Lawyers to stop Noelia's euthanasia. The court did not overturn the request from this group of lawyers, who represent the affected woman's father. the latest resolution of the legal saga that has been dragging on since August 2024 And in which the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) had already concluded that the 24-year-old woman met the requirements to be eligible for assisted dying. However, the Catalan court's ruling in September also recognized the right of a family member to exhaust all legal remedies to prevent the assisted dying of a relative. Taking advantage of this, Christian Lawyers and the young woman's father have unsuccessfully attempted to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. This Thursday, they warned that they will also appeal to the Constitutional Court in a renewed attempt to prevent the young woman from receiving assisted dying, and they reiterated that the precautionary measures currently on hold regarding the euthanasia procedure remain in place. Specifically, the Supreme Court has ruled against overturning the TSJC (High Court of Justice of Catalonia) decision that gave judicial approval to the authorization granted by the Catalan Guarantee and Evaluation Commission, the body responsible for assessing requests for euthanasia, which unanimously endorsed Noelia. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal on technical grounds and without considering the arguments presented by the affected woman's father. Two lower courts had already upheld the decision.

The Supreme Court notes that there are already two judicial instances that have confirmed that the young woman meets all the legal requirements to access assisted death. It was first done by a court in Barcelona, however, He clarified that the assisted dying procedure could not be resumed until the sentence was final. and therefore, until those involved had exhausted all possible resources. In fact, an appeal by the father against this decision led to The second court ruling, this time from the TSJC, confirmed that Noelia meets all the legal requirements for euthanasia.

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The Supreme Court will resolve the fundamental debate following various legal proceedings in which a family member attempts to stop the euthanasia of an adult who already has medical approval. In all the cases that have reached the courts, a question has arisen that was not foreseen in the 2021 euthanasia law: Is the family of an adult who has requested euthanasia entitled to prevent it through the courts?

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In a historic decision, the British Parliament voted this Friday in favor of a bill to legalize assisted dying. The law was passed with 314 votes in favor and 291 against, in a closer vote than that of the project without amendments, in November, and was not subject to party discipline.

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The High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has issued its first ruling in the legal debate that in recent months has called into question the right to assisted dying. In the opinion of Catalonia's highest court, a patient's family may be entitled to bring a euthanasia procedure to court even if the applicant already has the approval of the committee of experts charged with studying and validating or rejecting these requests.

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The court has rejected the request of the man who wanted to stop his daughter's euthanasia. The legal process the father initiated in August, three days before the girl's scheduled euthanasia date, has extended the wait by eight months. The ruling, in the first case in Spain involving attempts to stop euthanasia, finds that the man, advised by Christian Lawyers, lacked the legal standing to intervene in the request of the girl, an adult with full mental capacity to decide and understand her request.

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The Public Prosecutor's Office considers that a father has the right to try to stop, through judicial means, the euthanasia process of his daughter, who is an adult and who meets the legal requirements to receive assisted death. This is the position that the public prosecutor has sent to the Barcelona court that must resolve the case. First trial in the entire State for trying to stop euthanasia The decision has already been endorsed by the commission of experts in charge of evaluating patients who request it. The prosecutor also acknowledges that the young woman meets the requirements to be subject to euthanasia and is able to decide freely.

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It is not easy to talk about euthanasia without the discussion becoming an ideological battlefield. For the first time since the approval of the euthanasia law in Spain, a front has been opened in the courts and justice has become the last trench where the will of a 24-year-old girl is disputed. who has been demanding euthanasia for months. A decision validated by the Guarantee and Evaluation Commission of Catalonia, which has confirmed that it complies with all legal requirements.

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The right to a dignified death is in the hands of the courts for the first time. This Tuesday, in Barcelona, ​​​​an unprecedented trial was held in the entire State. The euthanasia of Noelia, a 24-year-old paraplegic girl, has the endorsement of the committee of experts that is in charge of evaluating the requests for this benefit, but it has been suspended since August 1 by court order. Her father, advised by the Christian Lawyers group, took euthanasia to court three days before it was administered to her and the process is paralyzed pending the final judicial decision. Before the judge, the young woman reiterated her desire to have a dignified death and denounced coercion from her environment to make her back out. According to legal sources consulted by the ARA, the young woman explained that some of her companions at the juvenile center where she had been under guardianship from the age of 13 placed stamps, crosses and religious symbols in her room.

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It has been one of the most controversial and difficult laws to push through Parliament in recent years, but the balance of the first five months of the euthanasia law shows that it was necessary and that it is being implemented with all safeguards in place. Catalonia was one of the first regions to implement the law, and since 25 June the right to end one's own life with medical assistance can be exercised in the strict case that the person requesting it suffers from a severe, incurable illness which causes insufferable pain, or suffers from a severe, chronic and unendurable illness. At the time the law was activated, there were many people who had been waiting for years to request an assisted death. By November 30, the Comissió de Garanties i Avaluació, which is responsible for approving or rejecting each request, had received 53 applications. It rejected three because they did not fall under these assumptions; it has approved 28, of which 24 have already been carried out. There are 14 more requests that are still being studied. In six cases the persons requesting it died before the end of the resolution process and in two cases they withdrew their requests.

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Catalonia has been one of the first regions in Spain to implement the euthanasia law, after Spain definitively approved its decriminalisation in March, and since 25 June the right to end one's own life with medical assistance in the case of suffering a severe and incurable illness, with insufferable pain, or a severe, chronic and disabling illness, can now be exercised in Catalonia. Since then, 24 people have already exercised this right and received help to die in Catalonia.

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Antoni Monguilod died on October 2019 of Parkinson's disease after 12 years of fighting for a dignified death. The same fight that Maribel Tellaetxe had undertaken, who had Alzehimer and wanted to leave before ceasing to recognise her children; as well as Montserrat Voltà, who had ALS and criticised in a letter that the system forced her to live "in an undignified way"; and José Antonio Arrabal, also with ALS, who recorded his "death in clandestinity" in 2017 so that no one would bring his family to justice. The same fight of Ángel Hernández, the man accused of male violence for having helped his wife, María José Carrasco, to die with dignity. And so many others, starting with Ramón Sampedro, the Galician sailor and writer, a quadriplegic since the age of 25, who fought a hard legal battle to be able to die with dignity, reflected in cinema. Their cases would not have to be repeated as of Friday, after the entry into force of the new law regulating euthanasia, which makes Spain the sixth country in the world to legalise assisted dying - after the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada and Colombia.

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Euthanasia will be legal in the Spanish state in three months after the Spanish Parliament finally approved the decriminalisation proposed by PSOE earlier this morning. It has received the support of most parties and only the PP and Vox voted against it. In total, 202 deputies voted in favour, 141 against and two abstained. The law allows a doctor to help a patient to die if he has previously requested it in the event that the patient suffers from a serious, incurable, chronic illness or is unable to care for him or herself. With this historic change, Spain becomes the fourth European country, after the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and the sixth in the world to regulate assisted dying

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