Spain court rejects father’s bid to stop daughter’s euthanasia
BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — A Spanish court on Monday said it had rejected an appeal by a father who tried to stop his young paraplegic daughter’s euthanasia in an unprecedented legal battle.
The 24-year-old woman was due to undergo the procedure in August last year after the euthanasia board in the northeastern Catalonia region supported her request.
The process was suspended at the last minute after her father filed a legal objection with the backing of conservative campaign group Abogados Cristianos (“Christian Lawyers”).
The father argued that his daughter suffered from mental disorders that “could affect her ability to make a free and conscious decision” as required by law.
He also said there were indications his daughter had changed her mind and that her ailment did not entail “unbearable physical or psychological suffering”.
But in a ruling dated Friday and made public on Monday, a Barcelona court said the woman met the conditions for euthanasia, which was legalised in the European country in 2021.
“All the professionals who have intervened in the process agree that… she suffers a serious, chronic and disabling illness, without any contradictory tests having been performed,” the judge wrote.
The woman’s ability to decide on this “most personal” of rights was “proven”, meaning the father cannot challenge it, the judge added in her ruling.
Abogados Cristianos said they would appeal the verdict, alleging “irregularities” committed by those who authorised the euthanasia that would cause “the nullity of the entire procedure”.
Campaign group Right to Die with Dignity celebrated a decision that, it said, “reaffirms the importance of respecting the will and independence of people in the final stage of their lives, without undue interference”.
The woman, who became paraplegic after throwing herself from the fifth floor of a building in a 2022 suicide attempt, asked a court in April of last year to allow her to exercise her right to die.
Her case was the first in Spain to reach a court for a judge to decide since the 2021 euthanasia law was passed.
