The Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI), calls the political forces of the Congress of Deputies a to ensure that the Proposal for the Organic Law for the Regulation of Euthanasia, which is being processed in Congress, be fully respectful of the rights of persons with disabilities.
The fact is that, although the text does not directly mention people with disabilities, it includes expressions that in the opinion of the CERMI movement should be deleted, such as “fully capable and conscious person”; “In full capacity to act”; “Disabling disease”; “Limitations that directly affect their physical autonomy, as well as their capacity for expression and relationship”; “Situation of de facto disability: situation in which the patient lacks understanding and sufficient will to govern her life Combatomously without necessarily having a judicial resolution of training”, and “physically handicapped”.
According to CERMI, these are imprecise, inappropriate and often incorrect expressions from a demanding consideration of human rights, and may give rise to undesirable interpretations of the future law in relation to people with disabilities. In addition, it indicates that they should be exceeded in a 21st century norm and in a signatory state of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In this sense, this entity recalls that the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in its second review of Spain, made recommendations, among which was to “ensure that there are no provisions that allow euthanasia for reasons of disability, since such provisions contribute to the stigmatization of disability, which can lead to discrimination ”.
In this sense, the CERMI defends that the regulation of euthanasia must refer to people who have “a condition, state or health situation characterized by the presence of a serious and incurable disease or pathology that causes continuous and unbearable suffering in the terms established in this law ”, avoiding the previous terms.
In relation to informed consent, the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities indicates that, although it is widely cited in the legislative initiative, it does not include any type of safeguard or procedure so that it is accessible and inclusive and offers all guarantees to persons with disabilities who want to exercise this right.
To resolve this issue, Spanish NGOs propose the incorporation into the law of a specific additional provision on persons with disabilities that includes that “in the procedures to be followed by virtue of the provisions of this law to request and to receive help to die, in the case of persons with disabilities, the means and resources of support, material and human, will be guaranteed, including the universal accessibility and design measures that are necessary for them to receive the information, form and express their will, grant their consent and communicate and interact with the environment, freely, so that their decision is individual, mature and genuine, without interference, interference or undue influence ”.
