Euthanasia for a 25-year-old: what does dignity mean?
The 25-year-old Noelia Castillo died by legal euthanasia in a Catalan hospice on Thursday. She had applied for the procedure two years ago, but her father had taken legal action to prevent it. Castillo, who had been placed in foster care by the state, had attempted suicide after experiencing traumatic sexual violence; she had been paraplegic ever since and suffered from chronic pain.
An ethical duty to respect her wishes
El País sees the actions of the campaign group Christian Lawyers (Abogados Cristianos), who supported Castillo's father, as manipulative:
“The public outcry sparked by Castillo's TV statement should not distract from the key issue: the exploitation of her suffering by Abogados Cristianos. Delaying an already approved assisted dying procedure through legal challenges is an attempt to undermine an inalienable right. Every day that the process was obstructed prolonged the suffering that the law seeks to prevent. Respecting Noelia Castillo's legitimate, free and well-founded decision, upheld by all the courts, was an ethical and democratic duty.”
State killing those it should be protecting
Spain is failing on every front, counters euthanasia critic Laurent Frémont in Le Figaro:
“A society that passes laws on ‘the right to a dignified death’ before guaranteeing the right to a life lived with dignity is not solving an ethical problem. … A child entrusted to the state was raped whilst under its protection. The authorities, unable to defend her, left her to endure the pain, the paraplegia and the psychological suffering alone, before granting her euthanasia after two years of legal proceedings. ... The state failed to protect and heal her, yet it managed to kill her. And some people dare to call that dignity.”