8mm
Posted on 11/29/2006 4:08:17 PM PST by wagglebee
Madrid, Spain (LifeNews.com) -- Spain will become the next nation to legalize euthanasia if Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has his way. People in Spain who assist someone in taking their life could face up to six months in prison, but Zapatero wants to make it legal.
That would have the European nation joining the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium in promoting euthanasia.
The prime minister is relying on the case of Inmaculada Echevarria to support his proposal.
Echevarria has suffered from muscular dystrophy and been confined to a hospital bed for 20 years because of a limited ability to move. She's had enough and wants to die.
“For me, life stopped having meaning a long time ago," the 51 year-old woman told the Associated Press. "I want them to help me die because I have spent my whole life suffering."
Her case has spawned a national debate with pro-life advocates saying better pain relief, palliative care, and medical support is the answer for patients like Echevarria, not death.
The Catholic Church is helping to lead the fight against legalizing euthanasia.
“Provoking the death of another person, as compassionate as the motives might be, is always alien to the notion of the dignity of human beings,” Braulio Rodriguez Plaza, archbishop of the northern city of Valladolid, wrote in a letter to Catholics, according to AP.
There is some debate as to whether Echevarria's request is already legal.
Fernando Martin, a spokesman for a pro-euthanasia group Right to Die with Dignity, asserts that taking the woman off of a respirator would be legal in Spain because it wouldn't be an active act of purposefully killing a patient.
Spanish Health Minister Elena Salgado said last week that Echevarria's case was best left up to the courts and that's where the debate may stay unless Spain's parliament moves forward with a bill.
Spain has been embroiled in a debate about euthanasia since Alejandro Amenabar's "The Sea Inside" promoted the story of a euthanasia activist there.
Though it garnered film awards from the media elite, the film flopped at the box office.
The film generated little enthusiasm from movie-goers took in just $55,000 at 23 locations nationwide in its first week compared to millions for the top movies. The Spanish-language drama, starring Javier Bardem, averaged a paltry $2,391 per theater.
Amenabar directs the picture, which brings to the screen the story of Ramon Sampedro, a seaman who is left paralyzed after a horrific accident.
Sampedro is confined to a bed after the incident and he spends the next decades begging friends and family to euthanize him. Through his plight, he becomes a champion of euthanasia forces in Spain seeking to legalize assisted suicide.
During his life, he is romanticized by two women -- one who agrees he should end his life and another who passionately urges him to fight and not give up hope.
Having muscular dystrophy would be horrible, but it's not something to end a life over.
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Is Judge Greer planning to retire to Spain?
Queen Isabella the Catholic spinning in her grave.
I can't believe I used to think like these Socialists!!!
It makes me sad that so many people are without hope and not willing to live. I can understand pain management or hospice, but I can't understand assisted suicide.
Don't forget Ferdinard her husband not only Isabella of Castellie but entire Royal family
Socialism creates this.
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We need another Franco.
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>> We need another Franco. <<
What? He's STILL dead?
Adios Espana...or should I say Bienvenido el Andalus...
The death knell continues for Eurabia.
Suffering is a subjective term. Either she's really suffering or someone convinced her that she was so now she wants to die. We are what we think. Unfortunately, other people play upon vulnerabilities.
Send George Greer to preside over Saddam's sentencing hearing. It's worth it to me.
Culture of death grinds on. More than sad. It's as though human life is nothing more than a combination of chemicals. If the chemicals aren't in synch properly, turn off the switch. Or plants - if one is growing funny, uproot it. But we are more than meat and electricity. The soul is not limited although the body and mind are. The more a person can understand this truth, the less shackled they feel, even though the body is limited.
Heck, everyone's body is limited. I can't even do what I used to do, and I'm only in my 50s. I can't run the way I used to, or swim, or dance. Heck, sometimes it's even a chore to climb the stairs if my arthritis is acting up. Someone with more problems than me could say that I don't understand the pain he or she is in. But no one can really know the pain of another.
Physical suffering can spur a person to look for spiritual reality within. That's actually its purpose. The argument that if a person is suffering they should die - where does it stop? Only certain kinds of suffering? Or any kind?
Good observation.
Five centuries later, the Mohammedan Empire is still weeping about the loss of Spain. The late ["He's dead, Jim"] Osama bin Laden specifically included Andalusia in his unquenchable grievances against the West.
There is a bitter irony here. Zapatero came to power in Spain's cowardly reaction to the bloody terrorist bombings in Madrid. Death begets death.
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