Spain has experienced an almost 30% increase in assisted suicide and euthanasia in 2024 compared with the previous year, according to newly released data.
Released at the end of last year, the statistics have revealed that 426 people ended their own lives by assisted suicide or euthanasia in Spain in 2024, a 27.54% increase from 2023, when 334 people ended their lives in this way. The total number of individuals who have ended their lives by assisted suicide or euthanasia has increased by 47.92% since 2022, the first full year after its legalisation.
Unlike in some other jurisdictions, there is no six or twelve-month prognosis limit for eligibility for assisted suicide or euthanasia in Spain.
Of the 188 people whose request for euthanasia was denied in 2023, 78 lodged an appeal with the relevant regulatory body. Of the 78 appeals, over 40% (32 cases) had their decision reversed, and the individuals were allowed to proceed with ending their lives. In 2024, of the 157 applications whose requests for assisted suicide or euthanasia were denied, 75 lodged an appeal. Of these, 20 (26.67%) were subsequently permitted to proceed with ending their lives by assisted suicide or euthanasia.
The most common underlying illness of the individuals who applied for assisted suicide or euthanasia in 2024 was a neurological condition, accounting for 302 applicants. 276 applicants had a form of cancer, while other conditions, including cardiovascular and respiratory issues, made up the remainder.
Discussion of expanding the assisted suicide and euthanasia law in Spain for those with mental illness
According to the Diario Médico journal, the Spanish government’s Ministry of Health had considered modifying the “Manual of Good Practices for Euthanasia” to include mental illnesses in 2024. The draft of the planned change stated that the Organic Law for the Regulation of Euthanasia “does not exclude mental illness, allowing people with an unbearable suffering due to the presence of a mental illness to request [state-assisted suicide or euthanasia] on equal terms with those whose suffering comes from a bodily illness”.
Recently, in Victoria, Australia, the eligibility criteria for its assisted suicide and euthanasia programme expanded significantly, just six years after the law came into effect in June 2019. Previously, individuals had to have been given a prognosis of six months in order to access state-assisted suicide or euthanasia, unless they had been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease, in which case, their prognosis could be extended to 12 months. Now, the law has been changed to double the eligible life expectancy to 12 months for all conditions.
Additionally, doctors in Canada, where euthanasia is legal, have said euthanasia for newborn babies who are born with disabilities “may be an appropriate treatment”, as concerns grow about the expansion of Canada’s euthanasia and assisted suicide programme.
Speaking on behalf of the Quebec College of Physicians (CMQ) to the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, Dr Louis Roy previously recommended that euthanasia be introduced for babies with “severe deformations” and “very grave… medical syndromes”. The CMQ reiterated that this was their position as recently as August.
This development comes at the same time as the assisted suicide Bill in England and Wales makes its way through the House of Lords. The proposed legislation, named the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, would make it possible for individuals who are thought to have six months or less to live to end their lives by assisted suicide.
During the Bill’s Second Reading, at which 67% of Peers who spoke did so in opposition to the Bill, the rapid expansion of assisted suicide laws was a key worry for those who opposed the Bill.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “This drastic increase in the number of people in Spain who ended their lives by euthanasia or assisted suicide is an incredibly worrying and sad development”.
“It would appear that where assisted suicide or euthanasia are made legal, the number of people who end their lives this way tends to increase each year, alongside discussions to expand the eligibility for these programmes further still”.
“It seems highly likely that if assisted suicide were to become legal in England and Wales, we would experience a similar trajectory. Lawmakers in Westminster must work to ensure that such an awful regime never becomes law here”.
