Spain Decriminalize Assisted Suicide

Spain: Parliament passes law legalizing assisted suicide
18.03.2021

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw...es-law-legalizing-assisted-suicide/a-56914713

Spain has become the fourth European country to allow terminally ill people to end their lives.

Spanish lawmakers on Thursday passed a law to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide for people with severe and incurable illnesses.

The ruling passed the lower house of parliament with 202 votes in favor and 141 against and 2 abstentions.

"Today we are a more humane, just and freer country. The euthanasia law, widely demanded by society, finally becomes a reality," Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Twitter.

Supporting and opposing groups reportedly protested outside the parliament during the debate.

What is the new law?
The legislation allows medical staff to intentionally end a life to relieve suffering, known as euthanasia, and assisted suicide, meaning the patient carries out the procedure.

Patients have to be Spanish citizens or legal residents and must be fully conscious when they request the procedures.

A request is to be submitted twice in writing, 15 days apart. It must be approved by two separate doctors and an evaluation body, according to AFP news agency.

Doctors will have the right to reject requests if they believe requirements were not met.

Until now, helping someone end their life carried a jail term of up to 10 years under Spanish law.

How is euthanasia perceived in Spain?
Far-right parties and religious groups strongly oppose the new legislation. The far-right Vox party said it would challenge the law before the country's Constitutional Court.

Euthanasia has long been a topic of public debate in Spain. An Academy Award-winning 2004 film titled "The Sea Inside" told the story of a man's assisted suicide in 1998 who was denied that right by Spanish courts.

A 2019 poll showed that the majority of people in Spain supported decriminalizing assisted suicide .

Euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In Switzerland assisted suicide is exempt from punishment. Portugal's parliament also approved a bill to legalize assisted suicide, but the country's top court blocked the decision.

First we legalize the murder of the unborn.
Next we legalize the murder of oneself.
Next we legalize the aiding of those who chose to murder.
How long before we legalize the murder of us old people?

Is it ever justifiable to take someone's life? If a loved one makes it clear that if anything like an accident or illness should ever cause them to be on life support that they would rather die, is it OK then for the family to honour their request? What about those who commit murders who are sentenced to death?

When someone says they are pro life, does this mean that they are against all forms of killing? For example if you had to defend yourself and family against an attacker, would the pro life person allow himself and family to be murdered rather than fight back through whatever means he is able to?

If a doctor says a pregnant woman's life is at risk if she decides to carry her baby full term, but her husband says he choose his wife to live, and the wife say she choose the baby, what should be done in this situation?

There is killing and there is murder, there is a difference. The Bible justifies self defense and war. If you murder someone, you forfeit your own life, also a Bible principal. Risk to the mother is extremely rare in the case of abortions. Around 7% of abortions. In these rare cases the doctor tries to save both lives. While that may not always be possible, neither the mother nor the doctor are trying to end the life of the child, they are trying to save it. Their intent is not to take the life. Totally different than a woman who doesn't want a child and wants it aborted.

In the Netherlands you just choose your death date and arrange it.
Those without God in their lives resort to this. I would think asking your maker for a peaceful death would be easier than paying someone hundreds of dollars to do it for you.