Calling it "a defeat for all," Catholic leaders are disheartened over Spain's new legislation that permits euthanasia and assisted suicide.
On Thursday, Spain's legislative body approved the bill by a vote of 202 in favor versus 141 against. The new law is expected to be promulgated in June.
In what the Catholic Bishops described as "abandoning the suffering," this law requires the National Health System to provide euthanasia on any "adult Spanish nationals or legal residents who suffer from a serious and incurable disease or a serious, chronic and incapacitating condition," says the Catholic News Agency's report.
"And while individual doctors can claim conscientious objection, medical facilities, even private, cannot object as institutions. Conscientious objectors will be listed on a registry," the report added.
In their commentary against the euthanasia bill, The Spanish Bishops' Conference pointed out how euthanasia could be carried out for reasons "unrelated to objective situations of uncontrolled and uncontrollable agony and pain."
Bishop Luis Javier Argüello Garcia, auxiliary bishop of Valladolid and secretary general of the Spanish Bishops' Conference, pleaded with doctors to exercise conscientious objection.
The Bishop also urged doctors "not to induce death to alleviate suffering," but to treat patients with "tenderness, closeness, mercy, encouragement, and hope for those people who are in the final stage of their existence, perhaps in moments of suffering that need comfort, care and hope."
Although the euthanasia law has just recently been approved, Bishop Arguello urged believers to not succumb to a "defeatist attitude." He urged fellow Catholic leaders and their parishioners to see the new law as an opportunity "to promote a culture of life" and "to take concrete steps to promote a living will or advance declarations that make it possible for Spanish citizens to express in a clear and determined way their desire to receive palliative care."
As demonstration, the bishops conference had made ready "a guide for patients to create a living will that specifies that appropriate treatments be administered to alleviate suffering." Euthanasia, of course, was excluded from the list of suggestions.
The rest of those opposed to the euthanasia bill highlighted "access to palliative care" as a more feasible alternative. They argued that this requires more attention than the passing of a law that legalizes "mercy-killings." In their research, they found out that "out of an estimated 120,000 patients, 50% of those in need of the said care do not have access."
How the Bill was Introduced
According to the Catholic News Agency, the bill was introduced by the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. In February 2020, the Congress of Deputies approved it for deliberation which began on Sept. 10.
In October, the Bioethics Committee of Spain unanimously rejected the principles laid in support of the bill. This was supported by the 12-member CBE in their advice to the government " that the proposed law is not valid from an ethical point of view."
Other departments like the conservative Popular Party and the far right party Vox have also expressed their opposition for the added reason that the bill may "challenge the law in Spain's Constitutional Court."
Other countries which have also legalized euthanasia are Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the Australian state of Victoria.
