The Parliament of Catalonia has approved a bill to simplify the registration of advance will documents (DVA). Until now, three witnesses of legal age and with full capacity to act or a notary are required, who certifies that the living will is made in full physical and mental capacity. With the change you will also be able to register with a CAP doctor.
The legislative modification will greatly facilitate the procedures, according to Cristina Vallès, president of the Right to Die with Dignity-Catalunya (DMD) association, an entity that has carried out various campaigns to promote the DVA and demand facilities for its processing: “It is a very important advance that “It will especially benefit the most vulnerable population, people who do not have a social or trust network to gather three witnesses, or lack the possibility of having a notary.”
The initiative, proposed jointly by the PSC groups, Junts i En Comú Podem, has been approved with the favorable vote of all groups except PP and Cs, which have abstained.
This allows a person to notify a health professional of the instructions to be taken into account if they are in a situation in which they cannot personally express their wishes. This ensures that he will receive the care he desires in the event of suffering a disability or an incurable illness.
The proposal to modify the law initially stated that citizens could register the DVA before a health professional without the need for a notary or three witnesses, but an amendment by the promoters and the ERC specifies that these health professionals must be in the field of primary care. , hospital or social health care and, preferably, from the user’s reference center.
The modification of point 8.2 of Law 21/2000, which was pioneering, has been approved at the expense of the in-depth reform proposal being prepared by the Bioethics Committee of Catalonia. The political groups have decided to take the step due to the risk that there would not be time to approve the new law before the end of the legislature, according to socialist deputy Assumpta Escarp.
The procedure for processing the DVA presents notable disparities between the different autonomous communities, a circumstance that causes differences regarding the use of this alternative. While in Catalonia just over 14% of the population has registered the so-called living will, in Navarra the percentage exceeds 22%.
Taking into account that it is normally the workers in outpatient clinics, hospitals and social-health centers who inform patients about the DVA, “recognition of the function of witnessing to health professionals will mean nothing more than completing, through logical continuity, the function that they already currently provide,” says Cristina Vallès.
Navarra is the community with the most facilities to register the DVA. Minors under 16 years of age are allowed (18 years of age in Catalonia) and three witnesses, a notary or a social worker from the health center of the interested person are required. Furthermore, a government campaign aimed at the population and health professionals resulted in an increase in registrations and a reduction in the average age of testators.
DMD demands that the Generalitat carry out a similar campaign to increase the Catalan numbers. “It is like an expression of your values, you can decide whether your life is not prolonged unnecessarily until you are subjected to the experiments necessary to lengthen it,” says Vallès.
