Is a National Law on Euthanasia Necessary in Spain? An Analysis of Madrid’s Autonomic Legislation

• Main Author: Rafael Junquera de Estéfani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Pontificia Comillas 2019-10-01
• Series: Revista Iberoamericana de Bioética
• Subjects: proceso de muerte; derechos de los pacientes; muerte digna
• Online Access: https://revistas.comillas.edu/index.php/bioetica-revista-iberoamericana/article/view/11579

Today, the public debate on euthanasia in Spain focuses on the presentation of a draft law at the national level. When we look at the Spanish autonomous community, we see that most of the autonomies already have regulatory regulations on dignified death, rights of patients in the process of death, etc. Now it is time to ask the question that appears as the title of this article: is it necessary a law that regulates euthanasia when we have a multiplicity of autonomic norms that are already regulating the rights of people at the end of life? We are going to focus on the regulations of only one of these autonomous communities: Comunidad de Madrid.