Official number of euthanasias in the year of the law: 180 in all of Spain

• Health One year of euthanasia law in Spain: 171 assisted deaths and a high presence of non-terminal patients

• Opinion Euthanasia and conscientious objectors

Until now, the number of euthanasias carried out in the first year of the implementation of the law had been obtained thanks to the autonomous communities that had given that data, but not all of them offered that information.

It was during her speech at the XXX Congress of Health Jurists being held these days in Logroño (La Rioja), that the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, gave

during the first year of implementation of the law:

.

"The development of the law is being adequate. Until the first half of 2022,

have been carried out .

, "said the head of Health.

Darias has participated in the start of the Law and Health Congress, together with the president of La Rioja, Concha Andreu.

The appointment in this XXX edition has 220 participants from the world of health law, bioethics and the legal profession from both the public and private sectors.

In her speech,

and the 20 years that the Patient Autonomy Law has fulfilled, in front of one of the architects of the regulation, the jurist and member of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Javier Sánchez Caro, sitting in the first seats of the Forum La Rioja, where the Congress is being held.

Regarding the stabilization process, Darias recalled that the objective is "to ensure the job stability of our health professionals" and that, through this regulation, "

".

In the same sense, he has referred to the reform of the framework statute "to limit temporality".

Steps towards a new law

He has defended the bill for equity, universality and cohesion of the national health system, which has just saved its first parliamentary debate.

"The objective of this law is to expand rights in access to healthcare. In addition, to include measures to make new co-payment systems impossible."

Then, the minister visited the San Pedro University Hospital (Logroño), where she explained the investment in high-tech healthcare equipment in

, within the

European funds

.

In total:

(linear accelerators, state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment).

La Rioja has received

.

"We must maintain the high vaccination coverage that we have achieved against Covid," the minister pointed out, in relation to the new vaccination campaign of the second booster dose -fourth dose in total- that began this Monday, with those older than 80 years.

Then "it is the turn of the health professionals, because it is important to take care of those who take care of us," she said, without specifying when.

The decision will be made by the vaccine committee, the group made up of technicians from the ministry and the autonomous communities and who meet every week, so as sources from the Ministry of Health have pointed out to this newspaper, the date is close.

Comments on taxation

How could it be otherwise, Darias, accompanied on her visit by the president of the community of La Rioja, Concha Andreu, responded to questions about the current tax model after the decision of several regional governments to lower taxes, the last of them the socialist of the Valencian Community, Ximo Puig.

The government of La Rioja is not going to lower taxes.

We have the most progressive tax system in all of Spain, where the lowest incomes have the lightest taxation and the highest are the ones that contribute the most.

After many years where the tax system was not the most appropriate, when we came to the government we were able to establish this fiscal progression," the president of La Rioja responded.

Regarding the decision adopted by the government of Valencia, Andreu replied that "the intention of the Government of La Rioja is to strengthen public services and we count on the contribution of the people of La Rioja in a balanced and fair manner. In other autonomous communities they will have to do their homework" .

He has assured that "the determination of certain governments to put certain autonomous communities at odds is counterproductive."

He denied that there was "a fiscal crack" or division among the socialists on this issue: "we are talking about the same, progressiveness."

Talking about taxation and financing of the health system go hand in hand and Darias also answered the questions about reducing taxation.

"We need a progressive fiscal policy."

It is necessary "to strengthen public services to have a robust health system. It means having powerful and solid public services."

There are also differences between communities in access to the human papillomavirus vaccine in children, on this issue Darias has assured that "the vaccine report is evaluating and analyzing the incorporation of children to the human papillomavirus vaccine. We will make a proposal to incorporate this", adding that "when we move forward together we go further".

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