Euthanasia legislation is headed for the Spanish Senate and, if passed, would be a defeat for human dignity and would affirm a self-centred view of life that proposes death as a solution to one’s problems, the Spanish bishops’ conference said.
“To insist on ‘the right to euthanasia’ is typical of an individualistic and reductionist vision of the human being and of a freedom detached from responsibility,” the conference’s executive committee wrote in a statement released on September 14.
“On the one hand, the social dimension of the human being is denied, (by) saying ‘My life is mine and only mine and I can take it away,’ and, on the other hand, it is asked that someone else – that is, organised society – legitimise the decision,” the bishops wrote.
Spanish legislators are preparing for a final vote on the controversial law that would make Spain the fourth European country to legalize physician-assisted suicide after Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.