Euthanasia, rejected stop for paralysed 25-year-old Spanish woman

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the request forprecautionary suspension of the euthanasia of a young Spanish paraplegic woman, who has been waiting 20 months to receive assisted death, opposed by her father, assisted by the ultraconservative association Abogados cristianos. The Strasbourg judges rejected the association's request for precautionary measures, according to judicial sources quoted by Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.

The 25-year-old girl, admitted to a social care facility in Catalonia, was paralysed after attempting suicide by jumping from the fifth floor of a building in 2022. The young woman had applied for an assisted death, an application that was strongly opposed by her father - despite the fact that the young woman had been in a state of neglect for years - claiming that his daughter was incapable of making a decision because she suffered from mental disorders. On the eve of the date set for euthanasia, 2 August 2024, the courts had upheld an urgent appeal filed by the parent to suspend the proceedings.

For the girl, it was a legal odyssey due to the long litigation, initiated by the ultra-Catholic association, which culminated in the Spanish courts with a ruling by the Constitutional Court, on 22 February, which had unanimously confirmed an earlier ruling by the same high court and an earlier ruling by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, according to which the request for assisted death had been authorised in full compliance with theSpanish euthanasia law, in force since 2021. And holding that the violation of a fundamental right contested by the father was 'manifestly non-existent'.

Spanish law allows for aid to die in the case of applicants who are over 18 years old, capable of understanding and suffering from a "severe and incurable illness" or chronic or invalidating suffering" under certain conditions. The refusal of the European judges to suspend euthanasia as a precautionary measure does not yet decide on the merits, but marks a decisive step to the execution of the patient's will.

The Catalan Generalitat has already reactivated the procedure and appointed a doctor for the assisted death on the date chosen by the young girl. According to health sources, the girl undergoes dailysubcutaneous sedation torelieve her neuropathic pain, while her father and Abogados cristianos continue to present appeals and requests for psychological interventions, considered by the doctorsto be completely unnecessary, after the numerous psychological and medico-legal examinations to which the patient has been subjected.