Woman in Spain Dies in Right to Die Case
Pastor Dale Morgan
Woman in Spain Dies in Right to Die Case*
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 14, 2007; 10:30 PM
MADRID, Spain -- A bedridden Spanish woman with muscular dystrophy died
Wednesday after doctors fulfilled her wish and turned off her
respirator, bringing an end to a case that had triggered a nationwide
debate on euthanasia.
Inmaculada Echevarria, 51, had sought to have her life support removed
under a 2002 patients rights law that says any sick person in control of
their mental faculties can refuse treatment.
Euthanasia is illegal in Spain and people who help someone else die can
be punished with at least six months in prison.
Echevarria had progressive muscular dystrophy and had been on a
respirator for the past 10 years. She had fallen sick at age 11 and for
the last 20 years had been in a hospital bed.
"For me, life stopped having meaning a long time ago. I want them to
help me die because I have spent my whole life suffering," Echevarria
told reporters last year.
Spain's Socialist government wants to legalize euthanasia as part of a
wave of liberal reforms that have largely transformed this traditionally
Roman Catholic country. Advocates had hoped Echevarria's case would spur
parliament to act.
Echevarria was transferred to a state hospital before her life support
was pulled Wednesday because she had been at a Catholic hospital and her
case had drawn protests from Spanish bishops.