• Society: Euthanasia, dignified death, assisted suicide, what is the difference?

Gijón Fernando Cuesta went to Switzerland last June to end his life through assisted suicide and "die with dignity" after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a case that will be broadcast on Saturday by Asturian public television (TPA) in a report in which Cuesta claims the regulation of euthanasia.

"I would say that politicians think, from time to time, of citizens, especially citizens who are in these conditions, " says the patient in the report, recorded in Zurich two weeks before he died, on June 5 in Zurich

At 65, Cuesta was beginning to have trouble speaking and breathing, her left hand was immobilized and she had lost her ability to walk.

"Every day I wake up thinking about what movement I am going to stop doing," said this Gijon, who, even before falling ill, was convinced that he did not want to live with serious disability problems.

At the time of the interview being recorded, Fernando Cuesta already had the legal assisted suicide alternative that a Swiss association provided him.

Before this option, he had planned to go to Holland to undergo euthanasia, although long waiting lists made him rule out this possibility.

One of the priorities in his last weeks of life was to maintain the mobility of his right hand , because he had to drink himself, without any help, the preparation they provided.

"They already tell me (the doctors) that it would be normal for a death by asphyxiation. And I decide that I don't want to take that kind of life to the end," he says in a report in which this engineer wanted to leave his testimony as a legacy in the Open euthanasia debate in Spain.

Fernando Cuesta, who always had the respect of his family, argued that euthanasia "is not mandatory" , but he claimed that those who wish to practice it can "die with dignity."

A month after his death, his daughter, Belén Cuesta, said in the interview that his father was always a person with "strong and clear" decisions and had a "very analytical vision" of reality.

"Once I made the decision we already knew that I had really valued everything," he said.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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