Spanish bishop criticizes Constitutional Court for upholding euthanasia law

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 24, 2023 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

The bishop of Orihuela-Alicante in Spain, José Ignacio Munilla, criticized the Constitutional Court’s decision to uphold the country’s euthanasia law.

The court stated that the law “recognizes a right of self-determination to decide in a free, informed, and conscious manner.”

Munilla countered on Twitter: “Doesn’t suicide put an end, precisely, to self-determination?”

The prelate added to his criticism by quoting the proverb “all mushrooms are edible, but some only once,” and charged that this was a decision “in which ideology supersedes reason and law.”

The majority on the Constitutional Court considered that the euthanasia law supports the “free, informed, and conscious decision as to how and when to die” in cases of terminal illnesses or severe disability.

The court’s ruling rejected “considering solely and in isolation the fundamental right to life.”

The resolution states that the constitutional concept of life as a fundamental or legal right to be protected is not “disconnected from the will of the person who holds that right” nor is it “indifferent to their decisions on how and when to die.”

The court also said that the government has “the duty to provide the necessary means to enable the help of third parties” and thus administer euthanasia.

In addition, the court stated that palliative care “does not constitute an alternative in all situations of suffering” entailed in the law.

Two judges dissented from the ruling: Enrique Arnaldo and Concepción Espejel, who pointed out that the decision exceeds “the scope and limits of the jurisdiction that corresponds to the Court.”

In their opinion, the ruling once again creates an alleged fundamental right “to which the nature of the right to public services is tied.”

These members of the Constitutional Court maintained that the ruling imposes this law “as the only possible constitutional model” in this matter, “so that it closes off any other legislative option.”

Impartiality challenged

The Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers filed a complaint against the court’s president, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, for crimes against the administration of justice for not recusing himself and not allowing judges Juan Carlos Campo and Laura Díez to recuse themselves.

When the euthanasia law was passed, Campo was Minister of Justice and Díez served as a high-ranking official within the Ministry of the Presidency.

Last February, the Christian Lawyers Association filed another complaint for the same reasons in relation to the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the abortion law approved in 2010.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.