More than two months later, one of the two euthanasia requesters whose right to die with dignity was temporarily paralyzed is on the verge of being able to comply with his wishes. The contentious court of 5 Barcelona rejected the request of the father of the man who contested the approval of the commission of the Generalitat for the euthanasia of the patient.
Judge Montserrat Raga agreed with the Generalitat prosecutor’s office and concluded that the father did not have standing to appeal the euthanasia. The “right to family life” invoked by the father does not represent a “legitimate interest” in impuning the resolution of the Generalitat which approved the dignified death of his son.
The judge recalls that European jurisprudence requires that, to appeal euthanasia, the family member has a “real link” with the patient who wishes to die with dignity, which is not the case in this case. The prosecution also considered that the simple fact that they were parents legitimized the father to appeal for euthanasia, but the dress excludes this possibility.
The decision to request euthanasia, affirms the judge, “is eminently personal and presents a strong component of self-determination of the person”, so to challenge it “it is necessary to carefully prove a legitimate interest”. Each case must be analyzed to see if the best interest of family members is present or not.
Another case remains to be resolved, which concerns a request for euthanasia of a 23-year-old girl, appealed by her relatives, represented by the ultra-Catholic entity Christian Lawyers. This appeal is being pursued in another court.
It all started at the beginning of August. Christian lawyers tried to use legal means to prevent the right to die with dignity of two applicants in Catalonia. In other autonomous communities, the Ministry of Justice had already rejected the claims of relatives represented by the ultra entity.
In Catalonia, two courts suspended on August 8 and 9 two euthanasias requested by a 23-year-old girl and a 54-year-old man, both suffering from recognized serious pathologies and high degrees of disability. Their assisted deaths had been authorized by the Commission of the Generalitat which, in accordance with the law on euthanasia, evaluates and decides the cases, but Abogados Cristianos obtained their preventive suspension in court.
At the same time as they temporarily suspended euthanasia, the two litigation magistrates transmitted the files to the TSJC considering that the high court had jurisdiction to rule on the merits of the case. However, the TSJC sent the decision back to the litigation courts.
The euthanasia requester had to wait more than two months to hear the court’s decision due to the slowness with which the TSJC processed his file (it was only processed at the beginning of September when he received it in August) although it is a priority procedure when it comes to fundamental rights. The other young woman still does not know what the magistrate decided that would resolve her case.
