Ethical, Religious and Legal Arguments in the Current Debate over Euthanasia in Spain

In the last ten years, there have been several cases in Spain (Ramón Sampedro, Leganés, Jorge León that have led to an intense social debate on euthanasia. The recent case of Inmaculada Echevarría, a woman suffering from a serious disease that kept her immobilized in bed, has revived the debate on e...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Siurana, Juan, Tamarit, Isabel, De Tienda Palop, Lydia María
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2008
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/116071
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/116071
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:179.7:342.721
Euthanasia
religion
ethics
law
Ética
Filosofía
71 Ética
56 Ciencias Jurídicas y Derecho
72 Filosofía
Descripción
Sumario:In the last ten years, there have been several cases in Spain (Ramón Sampedro, Leganés, Jorge León that have led to an intense social debate on euthanasia. The recent case of Inmaculada Echevarría, a woman suffering from a serious disease that kept her immobilized in bed, has revived the debate on euthanasia in Spain. On 18 October 2006 she held a press conference and publicly asked to be disconnected from the ventilator that kept her alive. After a long ethical, religious, legal, and social debate, the patient was disconnected on 14 March 2007 after being adequately sedated. As a consequence, the patient died. In our paper we defend the need for a radical and intercultural democracy and present the main ethical, religious and legal arguments on euthanasia that are being posed in Spain and in Europe as a debate that should help to build a radical and intercultural democracy at a European level.