A woman who became disabled following a failed suicide attempt has been confirmed as eligible for euthanasia by Spain’s Constitutional Court.
The 25-year-old woman, who has a psychiatric condition, made several suicide attempts in the past. After an attempt in 2022 left her paraplegic, she later requested euthanasia, which a specialist in Catalonia approved in 2024.
Since then, however, the woman’s father successfully blocked the process, contending that her psychiatric condition impaired her ability to make an autonomous and informed choice.
On Friday, Spain’s Constitutional Court rejected the father’s ongoing attempt to prevent his daughter from ending her life.
It sends a disturbing signal that a person who survives a suicide attempt can later be found eligible for state-supported euthanasia. All the rhetoric about safeguarding individual welfare rings hollow when the state establishes and administers a system designed to end human life.
What an appalling message it conveys that someone who attempts suicide and does not succeed may subsequently qualify for state-supported euthanasia. All the high-minded rhetoric about truly caring for the welfare of each individual comes to naught when the state facilitates and sets in motion a system that ends a human life.
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