Euthanasia becomes a Political Point

Politics is about the struggle for the Greater Good – bringing wealth to society and better standards and quality of life for all; through judicious taxes, policies and laws which will affect the entire population, either directly or vicariously. We may wish to become a criminal by breaking a law or a code, but there are a few cases where circumstance has caused the crime, to be found as we come to those two crucial areas of life – the beginning and the end. A life denied by a grieving mother; a passing aided by a tearful criminal. 

Society, with the gentle aid of the Church, will decide on the subject of abortion. In some countries, it is seen as a sorrowful necessity which we hope must never occur, yet will be aided by Medicine and Care when the situation is needed. We may see abortion as bad, but accept that sometimes the alternative is worse.

Not like this revolting politician from Texas, who is calling for the death penalty for those mothers who terminate their pregnancy!

This week, Spain was faced once again with the terrible spectre of assisted suicide, as a woman was helped by her loving husband into Death. He broke the law, but he broke it through Love. As The Olive Press tells us, ‘...Ángel Hernández, 70, assisted the death of his wife María José Carrasco, 61, who had suffered multiple sclerosis for thirty years. The Spanish couple filmed a video of Carrasco swallowing a lethal dose of sodium pentobarbital through a straw...’. Hernández then turned himself into the police, but was released the next day. In the video he asks “Do you still want to kill yourself?” to which she replies, “Yes, the sooner the better.”.

The most famous case of assisted suicide, made into the Academy-award winning film Mar Adentro (Wiki) occurred 21 years ago. The woman who helped Ramón Sampedro die says, “all this time after and Society hasn’t advanced at all”.

The PSOE has tried to bring a law to allow ‘euthanasia and a dignified death’ through parliament but has been stymied by the PP and Ciudadanos. As the usually hostile editorial of El Español was gracious enough to report ‘“I shed a tear with the euthanasia of María José”: Pedro Sánchez asks to recognize the right to a dignified death. Sánchez regrets the "tricks" of the PP and Cs to avoid the processing of the law. "If we want dignity at the time of life, then it must be also present at the time of death".

The set up for this occurrence has brought with it accusations of electioneering (really!) with an interviewer on Antena3 asking Hernández if his timing was to coincide with the elections (his answer: ‘I couldn’t care a fig about the elections’).

The senior PP leader and president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, says defensively ‘You can’t debate euthanasia during an election’ (here).

Change.org has a petition on the subject, asking that Hernández should not be punished (further) here. A judge who handles ‘gender-violence’ crimes is now investigating the events. Hernández could (in theory) face up to ten years in prison for aiding a suicide.

An amusing meme on Facebook says (our translation): ‘If the prosecution were as quick to order the arrest of a corrupt politician as they are that of an elderly person who helps his terminally ill soul-mate to die with dignity, we’d probably be lending money to Germany by next Christmas’.