Spanish Church leaders have stepped up condemnation of plans by the new Socialist-led government to legalise euthanasia, as part of a package of radical measures after its narrow November election victory.
“Every person has a right to die with dignity, but how can euthanasia, an action causing death, be promoted as a way of eliminating pain and misfortune?” said Cardinal Antonio Canizares of Valencia. “Although the Church offers various way of accompanying the suffering, it is never lawful to cause the death of a sick person, even if they expressly request it. Euthanasia is always a form of homicide.”
The Cardinal published the statement after the Spanish Cortes voted by 208 to 140 to bring forward draft legislation by the government of premier Pedro Sanchez, which will make the country the world's ninth to de-criminalise euthanasia. Meanwhile, another Church leader warned that "attractive propaganda" was being spread in support of the government bill, in that it was presenting euthanasia as "a social good" and "solution to weakness and loneliness".
“Illness and infirmity aren't just personal matters, but concerns for families and societies called to care, protect and help,” said Bishop Jose Lorca Planes of Cartagena. "The coldness surrounding this issue will lead the sick and elderly to distrust and fear the rest of society - including doctors and even their own families.”
New rights to "a dignified death and regulated euthanasia" were pledged under an agreement between Sanchez's Socialist Party and the far-left Unidas Podemos, headed by Pablo Iglesias, whose coalition, the first in modern Spain, took office in January with a two-seat majority in the 350-seat Cortes. The draft law will allow state-funded euthanasia for patients with chronic illnesses and disabilities, whose written request to die, repeated after 15 days without pressure, is approved by a medical commission, with final provisions decided separately by Spain's 17 regions.
Spanish media said the measure was modelled on laws in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, which allow euthanasia alongside Canada, Colombia, Switzerland and parts of Australia and the United States.
Opposed by the conservative Partido Popular and far-right Vox party, euthanasia for incurable patients was supported by 87 percent of citizens in a 2019 survey by Spain's Metroscopia agency, while around two-thirds of doctors are also said to favour the draft law.
However, Spain's former Primate dismissed claims in a February pastoral letter that euthanasia embodied a "new human right" to be determined by parliamentary majorities, and warned its legalisation would be a "serious and harmful sin". "We must reject claims by promoters of euthanasia about their alleged compassion for pain", Archbishop Braulio Rodriguez Plaza, who headed Spain's historic Toledo see till December, told Catholics. "Neither euthanasia nor assisted suicide will make society better or freer, or be an expression of true progress".
Loading ...
