Madrid (EFE) to one of the key laws of the Government of Pedro Sánchez.
President Cándido Conde Pumpido has included Vox’s appeal on the plenary’s agenda, as a “matter for initial study”, a novel epigraph to deal with the prior approach to one of the most delicate appeals of the court, whose rapporteur is Judge Ramón Sáez.
Legal sources have informed EFE that a draft sentence will probably not be used because the road map involves starting a debate of ideas and solution proposals in this plenary session, which is deep and calm so that the magistrates can make the suggestions they consider appropriate given the relevance of the matter.
The Plenary will not resolve euthanasia this week
In other words, the magistrates will present their points of view to the most important points but without any proposal for a resolution, because what is sought is to take the pulse of the issue.
Therefore, the Plenary is not going to resolve the Vox appeal this week, nor is there a calendar for this purpose, since everything will depend on the progress and the possibilities of uniting large majorities in the key points of the law, which seems complicated given the polarization of the court into two blocks. The presentation, in the best of cases, would not be raised until the following plenary session in March.
What is at stake with euthanasia?
Euthanasia, regulated in 2021 at the request of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, can be requested by people who suffer “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 at least four times throughout the entire process. In addition, the patient can withdraw at any time.
A guarantee and evaluation commission, made up of medical, nursing and legal personnel, supervises each case and is ultimately responsible for authorizing it. Health professionals are eligible for conscientious objection.
In its first year of application, from June 2021 to June 2022, 180 people exercised their right to euthanasia in Spain.
Challenge by Vox
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.
While the appeal of the PP considers that the law violates the right to life and that it generates legal defenselessness because it does not have a legal regime that guarantees that the decision has been taken freely and with full understanding.
Both parties unsuccessfully requested the precautionary suspension of the law. And both formations also defend that their response to euthanasia involves improving palliative care.
The TC already had the opportunity to rule on a specific case, that of Eugen Sabau, known as the Tarragona Gunman, whose euthanasia the victims of his crimes tried to stop without success, who wanted him to be tried.
More challenges and the appeal for sedition
Apart from euthanasia, the Plenary will study the admission to processing of Vox’s appeal against the penal reform that abolished the crime of sedition and modified that of embezzlement, as well as the question of unconstitutionality raised by the Supreme Court that prevents joint custody when one of the parents is immersed in a procedure of mistreatment.
The magistrates will also address a new cascade of challenges from Vox against four magistrates for a dozen issues that will foreseeably be rejected, because the court opposes this type of initiative when they threaten to leave it without a quorum to resolve.
