The Advance Directive Document (DVA), the process through which a person states what medical care they want to receive in the end-of-life process, includes as of this Monday in Catalonia a new way to formalize it: it can be validated by the doctor . The measure was approved last February. Until now, three witnesses or a notary were required to obtain this document.
The association Dret a muerte dignified Catalunya, in charge of announcing the modification, defends that this was one of the main demands of recent years and celebrates that the procedure is now more “affordable” and “equitable.” Until now, the DVA had to be formalized by appointment at a health center with three witnesses, who could not be family members, or before a notary. But both requirements were “insurmountable obstacles” for some people, given the difficulty of finding three witnesses or the notarial expense it entailed.
Since the beginning of the year, 986 people have made the DVA effective. In 2023 there were 22,054 and a year before (2022) 12,996, so the jump in interest in validating this document has grown spectacularly, according to data from Dret to die with dignity Catalonia.
With the legislative modification (Law 2/2024 on the rights of information concerning the health and autonomy of the patient), approved last February, but which came into force this Monday, health professionals will be able to act as witnesses. The person interested in formalizing the DVA must go to a doctor or nurse to validate the document, which must be registered so that it can be consulted in the health system. The healthcare provider must belong to the field of primary, hospital or socio-health care and it is preferable that they belong to the patient’s reference center. Although health workers have been informed and the modification comes into force this Monday, the Health Department has not yet posted the document that health workers must use. For this reason, from Dret to die with dignity Catalunya they have asked patients to give a few days of margin to start the process.
The DVA is a protocol that puts in black and white a person’s decision and planning about the medical care they want to receive if they are in a situation of inability to make decisions. And anyone of legal age can start it. A coma or vegetative state, a terminal illness or severe dementia would be some of the medical situations in which the person can lose their ability to decide and in which advance directives make sense.
Not prolonging life when it is irreversible, deciding to spend the last days of life at home are some of the examples of requests. You can also record your desire not to prolong life artificially or not to receive treatments that have not been proven effective. In addition, if the requirements established by law are met, the document may also include a wish for euthanasia. In this case, a representative must be appointed to initiate the procedure.
