Spain court rejects father's bid to stop daughter's euthanasia

BARCELONA:

An unprecedented legal saga in Spain pitting a father against his young paraplegic daughter's euthanasia bid moved closer to a resolution on Thursday after the Supreme Court rejected his latest appeal.

Spain is one of few countries to legalise euthanasia following a 2021 law that comes with strict requirements.

It stipulates that anyone of sound mind who is suffering from a "serious and incurable illness" or a "chronic and disabling" condition can request assistance to die.

The woman, in her 20s, was due to undergo the procedure in August 2024 after the euthanasia board in the northeastern Catalonia region supported her request.

But the process was suspended at the last minute after her father filed a legal objection backed by the conservative campaign group Abogados Cristianos ("Christian Lawyers"), with a court applying precautionary measures halting the euthanasia.

The father said his daughter suffered from mental disorders that "could affect her ability to make a free and conscious decision" as required by law.

He also said there were indications she had changed her mind and that her ailment did not entail "unbearable physical or psychological suffering".

The Supreme Court announced on Thursday it had rejected the father's appeal against the rulings of two lower courts that had also dismissed his challenges to have the euthanasia halted.

"The appellant had not managed to refute the presence of all the elements necessary to approve the applicant's euthanasia," the Supreme Court said in a statement, also dismissing alleged procedural irregularities.