Madrid (EFE) the right to assisted death is consolidated and where it represents between 1 and 4% of deaths.
The balance presented by the Right to Die with Dignity association this Thursday, on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the entry into force of the euthanasia law on June 25, places Navarra, Catalonia, La Rioja and the Basque Country at the forefront, with more than one euthanasia for every thousand deaths (0.1%); and Murcia, Galicia and Extremadura at the bottom, with an incidence ten times lower.
There are still no official data on euthanasias carried out in these two years. Health has recorded 338 cases until last December, although it specifies that they are not consolidated figures; and DMD, based on the information collected from various regional sources, raises the figure to around 370, after around a thousand requests.
Why so many differences between territories?
In these two years DMD has advised some seventy people, but he confesses that the low quality of official data prevents them from drawing a reliable picture of the situation, distinguishing specific incidents of structural problems and saying in which communities the service works well and in which No.
At a press conference, the vice president of the DMD, the doctor Fernando Martín, highlighted the difficulty of comparing the figures registered in other countries with those of Spain given the impact of the State of the autonomies: “when it works, it works very well, but even that rolls, it costs him; there are 17 communities that are raffling their incidents every day”.
At his side, Fernando Sanz, also a doctor and one of the coordinators of the DMD personalized care program, wanted to make it clear that in no case can one speak of failure: “the data show that it was necessary to decriminalize and normalize euthanasia as a benefit more than the National Health System. It will always be a minority way of dying, but it is tremendously important that as a society we have grown incorporating a necessary right”.
They denounce lack of collaboration from insurers
The differences observed between communities, “are they only due to cultural differences? Are there territories in which citizens more easily recognize themselves as candidates for this right? It is possible, but it must be ruled out that there are no accessibility problems”, stated Sanz.
With the information gathered, they see that some communities have done a better job of implementing the law.
The rates are higher, for example, in communities where there are reference groups -health professionals who are experts in the law who advise colleagues who are facing a case for the first time- or where response protocols have been established to that applications do not take unnecessarily long.
Activists have denounced the lack of collaboration from private insurers, pointing specifically to Muface’s inaction when receiving requests; and they have also warned of cases of doctors who, through conscience or ignorance, fail to comply with the obligation to process the requests they receive from patients.
Faced with the possibility of a change of government, they assume that it is a challenge to see to what extent the work carried out can be affected, but they remember that changing an organic law is not easy and they also highlight that among right-wing voters support for euthanasia , although somewhat lower, exceeds 50%.
Patients with a yes who want to postpone death
The law sets specific deadlines and euthanasia, according to DMD, could be carried out in 35 days, but it usually exceeds 50.
Sanz has also put on the table the obstacles encountered by some patients who, after receiving the “yes” from the guarantee commission, want to postpone the date of their death.
The law did not set deadlines for this final phase and each community has regulated it differently. “We are verifying with experience that it is one thing to make the decision to start the procedures and another is to set a date and time for your death; Knowing that they own the access to the right, for many people is a reassuring element that alleviates their suffering”, he explained.
For example, a woman with advanced cancer and a life expectancy limited to two months turned to the association; When she received the go-ahead for her request, the disease was giving her a respite and she did not want to set a date for her death, as required. After various efforts, she was allowed to wait; four months later she got worse and she decided to exercise her right.
Not all communities have published their annual reports, but, in the association’s opinion, it is more serious that relevant data is omitted to analyze the reality of euthanasia in each territory.
More than the percentage of applications denied, for example, DMD considers it important to analyze the number of people who have died while waiting for the benefit and for what reason.
According to the report published in February by the Ministry of Health, between June and December 2021, 32 people died while processing their request (on average 31 days after starting the process) and 28 requests never reached the guarantee and evaluation commissions in charge of analyze them.
The most common diseases
Another peculiarity of euthanasia is that among those who have received help to die, neurodegenerative diseases (ALS, multiple sclerosis, etc.) predominate, while in countries such as Belgium, Canada or the Netherlands, 80% of cases are terminally ill.
Cancer, for example, accumulates two out of three cases in those countries, while in Spain only half had that disease behind.