A man, who shot four people before being severely wounded in a shootout with the police, has been euthanised in Spain before he was able to sit trial.
Eugen Sabau, 46, a former security guard in Tarragona, Spain, shot four people including a policeman after he went on a rampage and barricaded himself in his home in December last year.
After a shootout with the police, Sabau was left paralysed below his neck and had to have one of his legs amputated.
Late last month, the ‘Gunslinger of Tarragona‘, as the Spanish media referred to him, was euthanised under Spanish law on the grounds of the chronic pain induced by his injuries.
Courts rejected the victims’ appeals to prevent him from ending his life
Despite the protests of his victims who argued that he should have to face justice and be tried in a court of law, Courts rejected their appeals to prevent him from ending his life. The case went as far as the Constitutional Court, which refused to deliberate on it, saying there had been no violation of fundamental rights.
Sabau’s death was confirmed by penitentiary authorities on 23 August 2022. Neither Sabau’s lawyer nor prison authorities offered any comment.
Spain made assisted suicide and euthanasia legal in March 2021. The law allows assisted suicide for adults with a “serious and incurable” condition or a “chronic or incapacitating” condition that causes “intolerable suffering”.
According to El Pais newspaper, in the year since the law came into effect on 25 June, at least 172 people died via euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Assisted suicide and euthanasia in the UK
The sick and vulnerable are currently protected against assisted suicide and euthanasia in the UK.
A 2020 British Medical Association (BMA) survey showed that 84% of doctors in palliative medicine would not be willing to perform euthanasia on a patient should the law ever change.
Assisted suicide was most recently debated and rejected in Parliament in 2015 by 330 votes to 118.
A recent Irish study on ageing found that three-quarters of people over 50 who had previously expressed a wish to die no longer had that desire two years later, and that many who do express a wish to die, do so for non-medical reasons.
The state of Oregon also found 53.1% of patients who chose an assisted suicide were concerned with being a “burden on family, friends/caregivers”, 94.3% of patients were concerned with being “Less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable”, 93.1% were concerned with “losing autonomy”, and 71.8% were concerned with “loss of dignity”. Of the total who have died since 1997, only 27.4% have listed “inadequate pain control, or concern about it” as one of their end-of-life concerns.
Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said: “Assisted suicide and euthanasia laws often remove protections for people with disabilities, the elderly and those who are otherwise vulnerable, protections that the rest of society enjoys. However, assisted suicide and euthanasia as a means to avoid going to a trial, as happened in the Sabau case, is probably rarely considered by opponents or supporters of such legislation”.
“Many people would feel that Mr Sabau should have undergone a trial and that his being euthanised ahead of a trial is an injustice to his victims”.
