Spain may be on the verge of legalizing active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in healthcare.
On Thursday, the parliament in Madrid voted through the bill that will allow patients suffering from incurable diseases or "unbearable permanent conditions" to get help to end their lives, reports AP.
The decision was adopted with the numbers 198-138.
The Spanish coalition government and several other parties supported the bill, while the conservative Partido Popular and far-right Vox voted no.
In connection with the vote, a group of protesters gathered outside the parliament building in the capital and waved black flags with skulls in protest against the law.
But despite critical voices, the Spanish Senate is also expected to give the green light for the bill.
- Our society can not stand passively in the face of the unacceptable pain that many people suffer from, says Spain's Minister of Health Salvador Illa.
Should be able to refuse
According to the new law, health care professionals must be allowed to assist patients who on four different occasions have expressed a wish to die.
Patients should suffer from "a serious and incurable disease" or from a "debilitating and chronic condition" that the person considers "unbearable", according to AP.
Healthcare professionals must have the opportunity to refuse to participate in the process, according to the bill.
Euthanasia - when a physician medically contributes to or causes a patient's death - is allowed today in Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
In some US states, physician - assisted suicide, when the patient takes the lethal dose, is legal.