Spain will become the sixth country worldwide to allow euthanasia and assisted suicide

Euthanasia and assisted suicide will be legal in Spain once the country’s Senate ratifies an historical bill passed on 17 December by the Congress of Deputies, the nation’s lower house of parliament. Following the forecasted ratification, next spring Spain will become the sixth country worldwide to acknowledge the right to an assisted death, after the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, and New Zealand. Switzerland permits assisted suicide for “unselfish reasons.”1 Several US states also allow assisted dying. After decades of social debate and four previous failed attempts, the bill was passed with cross party support from leftist and conservative parliamentarians. The bill, promoted by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE)—ruling under a coalition with the …