The Andalucían Government has approved the draft law ‘Ley de Derechos y Garantías de la Dignidad de las Personas en el Proceso de la Muerte’, a law safeguarding the rights and dignity of individuals who are in the process of dying.
The draft will now be passed to Parliament for approval. Known as ‘The Law of Death with Dignity’, this future law governs actions in both public and private medical facilities.
The law, which will be enforceable, will allow patients to refuse therapeutic treatment or to be maintained in life through artificial means and will also allow for disconnection from such artificial systems.
Also being developed under ‘The Law of Death with Dignity’ are such things as palliative terminal sedation and the determination of brain death. This does not cover euthenasia as this is covered under the Penal Code and is not a matter upon which an autonomous authority is permitted to legislate.
Medical and health professionals providing treatment to patients in a terminal situation will be required to respect the wishes of the patient without imposing his or her personal moral, religious or physiological views.