A government bill recognizing the right to euthanasia with very strict conditions was adopted at first reading on Thursday by Spanish deputies.

The text has yet to be approved by the Senate next year.

The Minister of Health welcomed explaining that the government "could not remain impassive in the face of the intolerable suffering of some people". 

The Spanish Chamber of Deputies voted on Thursday at first reading by a large majority for a government bill recognizing the right to euthanasia under strict conditions, despite opposition from the Catholic Church and the right.

The text was adopted by a large majority with 198 votes in favor, 138 against and two abstentions.

It will still have to be approved by the Senate next year.

The two member parties of the government coalition (the Socialist Party and Podemos, the radical left) voted in favor, as did their Catalan independence allies and the Liberals of Ciudadanos.

The People's Party (PP, conservative), as well as the far-right Vox party, opposed it.

A right to "conscientious objection"

The text provides that a person suffering from a serious, disabling or incurable disease can be helped to die if he requests it to avoid intolerable suffering.

The request must be made in writing and repeated fifteen days later.

It will have to be accepted successively by two doctors, then examined by a committee.

A right to "conscientious objection" is provided for health professionals who refuse to participate in euthanasia.

The cost of the procedure will be reimbursed by Social Security.

"A very transversal demand from the majority of Spanish society"

"As a society, we cannot remain impassive in the face of the intolerable suffering of certain people", declared the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, affirming that the text answered "a very transversal request of the majority of the Spanish society ".

The People's Party denounced the "haste" with which the vote was organized, believing that the government had thus wanted to avoid a "serious debate".

This law constitutes "a defeat for all, a failure of our health system and our society", estimated the deputy PP José Ignacio Echániz.

"Faced with euthanasia and assisted suicide, we defend palliative care, the deep treatment of pain, palliative sedation," he added.

The Vox party has announced that it will file an appeal with the Constitutional Court.

The case of Ramon Sampedro 

Since coming to power in 2018, the Socialists had already tried in vain to vote twice for this reform.

Currently, assisted suicide and euthanasia are punishable by two to ten years in prison, which can be reduced if the person suffered from a serious illness and asked to die. 

The vote comes almost 23 years after the death of Spaniard Ramon Sampedro, who became quadriplegic at 25 and then spent 29 years claiming the right to die.

Once the offense prescribed, one of her friends had admitted in court to have participated in 1998 in her assisted suicide.

This case inspired the film "Mar Adentro", by Alejandro Amenabar, which won an Oscar in 2005.