Strong condemnation of new euthanasia case in Spain

Madrid, Spain, Mar 16, 2007 / 09:32 am

Diverse civil organizations and leaders are deploring the death of Inmaculada Echevarria, a Spanish woman who suffered from progressive muscular dystrophy and whose respirator was removed by doctors, calling it a case of euthanasia that has no legal or moral basis.

According to the president of the State Federation of Pro-Life Associations, Alicia Latorre, this case could become “a rallying cry for opening the doors to euthanasia” in Spain.

Natalia Lopez Moratalla, doctor in Biology and professor of biochemistry, said the case of Echevarria is “euthanasia pure and simple.”

At the same time, the Spanish Forum for the Family stressed that suffering and terminal illnesses should be addressed with “palliative care and humane medicine.”  

“To voluntarily deprive a person of nourishment or a respirator that keeps him or her alive is to open the door to euthanasia.  Once this door is open there are no longer any objective limits that allow for maintaining an active commitment to human life, and thus the way is opened for progressive abuses, as the historical experience shows of any country that has gone down this road,” the organization warned.

Manuel de Santiago, president of the Spanish Association of Bioethics, criticized the contradiction of two government decisions: one to disconnect Inmaculada Echevarria’s respirator, and two, that of force-feeding Basque separatists Iñaki de Juana Chaos, who has been on a hunger strike.