Thursday, November 30, 2006
Spain Ready to Jump on Euthanasia Bandwagon
From The Boston Herald
GRANADA, Spain - Inmaculada Echevarria has spent much of her life watching muscular dystrophy ruin her body. She’s been in a hospital bed for 20 years, her movements are now reduced to wiggling her fingers and toes and she wants to die.
“For me, life stopped having meaning a long time ago. I want them to help me die because I have spent my whole life suffering,” said 51-year-old Echevarria, whose case has triggered debate in Spain on the rights of people with incurable diseases to seek help in dying.
Euthanasia is illegal in Spain and people who help someone else die can be punished with at least six months in prison. But Spain’s Socialist government wants to legalize it as part of a wave of liberal reforms that have largely transformed this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
Under Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain is one of only a half-dozen countries in the world that have legalized gay marriage. He has also made it easier for Spaniards to divorce, eased laws on stem cell research, stiffened laws on violence against women and ended direct government financing of the Catholic church.
GRANADA, Spain - Inmaculada Echevarria has spent much of her life watching muscular dystrophy ruin her body. She’s been in a hospital bed for 20 years, her movements are now reduced to wiggling her fingers and toes and she wants to die.
“For me, life stopped having meaning a long time ago. I want them to help me die because I have spent my whole life suffering,” said 51-year-old Echevarria, whose case has triggered debate in Spain on the rights of people with incurable diseases to seek help in dying.
Euthanasia is illegal in Spain and people who help someone else die can be punished with at least six months in prison. But Spain’s Socialist government wants to legalize it as part of a wave of liberal reforms that have largely transformed this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
Under Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain is one of only a half-dozen countries in the world that have legalized gay marriage. He has also made it easier for Spaniards to divorce, eased laws on stem cell research, stiffened laws on violence against women and ended direct government financing of the Catholic church.
papijoe 1:03 PM
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