The Constitutional Court will debate next week the appeal filed by Vox against the euthanasia law approved by the Government of Pedro Sánchez in 2021. According to legal sources consulted by La Vanguardia, the presentation presented by magistrate Ramón Sáez considers that the right to life, included in article 15 of the Constitution, is not absolute and therefore euthanasia can be connected with the right to personal liberty and dignity.
These same sources explain that the progressive majority of the court is inclined to support the paper. In the plenary session last week, the magistrate in charge made a brief presentation of the general lines of the text, although it will be defended and debated in its entirety starting next Tuesday.
Vox challenged the norm for infringing the right to life by stating that it is a fundamental right that the State must protect, as is also its duty to offer palliative care to those who suffer.
Euthanasia, regulated in 2021 at the request of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, can be requested by people who suffer from “a serious and incurable disease” or a “serious, chronic and disabling condition” that affects autonomy and that generates “physical or constant and intolerable psychic”.
The patient may receive euthanasia about five weeks after requesting it, after being informed of the different alternatives and palliative care available, and after confirming their willingness to die on at least four occasions throughout the entire process. In addition, the patient can withdraw at any time.
The paper examines the decision-making procedure contemplated in the standard and concludes that they offer sufficient control guarantees. The law requires that a guarantee and evaluation commission, made up of medical, nursing and legal personnel, supervise each case and is ultimately responsible for authorizing it. Health professionals are eligible for conscientious objection.
Likewise, it rejects that the registers of objectors are unconstitutional, as stated in the appeal. As contemplated in article 16 of the law, health professionals directly involved in providing aid in dying may exercise their right to conscientious objection.
The refusal or refusal to perform the aforementioned service for reasons of conscience is an individual decision of the healthcare professional directly involved in its performance, which must be stated in advance and in writing. However, the health administrations will create a register of health professionals who are conscientious objectors to assisting in dying, in which the declarations of conscientious objection to the realization of the same will be registered and whose purpose will be to provide the necessary information to the health administration so that it can guarantee adequate management of the provision of aid in dying.
The paper considers that this registry is constitutional, which is subject to the principle of strict confidentiality and the regulations for the protection of personal data.
