The President of Spanish nurses calls for return to the “law of death Digna” after the elections.

-Maximum González jury: win whoever wins the forthcoming general elections should seriously consider to take the initiative ” because although there are already some regional regulations, it is essential that there is a basic law, so that all citizens have equal rights and that all professionals are working under the same criteria ”

-Paul Simondirector of the strategy of bioethics of the Andalusian health system public: our goal in developing the law was twofold: improve the quality of health care and give legal certainty to the professional ”

-Isabel Torres, President of the Association right to die Dignamente in Andalusia: our aim is to promote each person to choose freely when you want to end his life ”, if that is the case, which is why want the legality of euthanasia and assisted suicide ”

Granada, 2011-October the 7th National Congress of health journalists, which began last Friday at the school of public health of Granadaorganized by the National Association of health journalists, started with a round table discussion on the law of dignified death.

Participated in it, the President of the General Council of nursing Spain, maximum González Jurado, on behalf of more than 250,000 nurses working in the country; Josep Basra, President of the Spanish society of family and community (Semfyc) medicine; Paul Simon, Professor of the Andalusian School of public health (EASP) and director of the strategy of bioethics of the Andalusian health system public; Isabel Torres, President of the Association right to die Dignamente in Andalusia; and Juan Romero Cotelo, Member of the Committee of bioethics of the Madonna Hospital de las Nieves of Granada.

Maximum González jury, President of the General Nursing Council of Spain and leading expert in medical ethics, made the first introduction for later discussion. On the occasion of the debate, the expert has analysed dignified death concept and its reality in our country, existing both in Europe and Spain both regulation, palliative care and measures to take to level of care in this area.

González jury wanted especially qualify which means assistance in terminal stage that has nothing to do with the concepts of euthanasia or assisted suicide ”. Thus, pointed out that the definition more in line with the reality is that of the Texas Institute of Medicine: that death free of anguish and suffering for the patient, family, and caregivers in general, in accordance with their wishes and reasonably consistent with the clinical, cultural, and ethical standards ”. Jury González has pointed out that a human death means to meet the needs of the patient, giving a comprehensive care, providing pain relief, ensuring a personal accompaniment, giving truthful information of its process and to meet their spiritual needs ”.

The expert pointed out the need for health professionals who provide such assistance to be specialized, trained and trained properly, because they must deal with assistance that requires specialized Super care. However, it has affected that staff is”not sufficiently prepared,” so it has argued that “it must be given more training, starting with the powers”. In this connection, underlined that in this process it is nurses who have lead the processes within the multidisciplinary team, that its assistance is the closest, being in continuous contact with the patient and their families.

For maximum González Bill which the Government intended to regulate this care at the end of life – popularly known as the law of death Digna – has been suspended by the election impasse. “For this reason has pointed out that win whoever wins the forthcoming general elections should seriously consider seize the initiative ” because although there are already some regional regulations, it is essential that there is a basic law, so that all citizens have equal rights and that all professionals are working under the same criteria”. González Jurado has ensured that a hypothetical regulation of this process “not outright at all with the moral attitude of the professional”, that the patient “has the right not to be subjected, to die with dignity, to reject therapeutic measures, knowing that this entails shortening of life”.

Paul Simon: director of the strategy of bioethics of the Andalusian health system public

For his part, Paul Simon, Professor of the Andalusian School of public health (EASP) and director of the strategy of bioethics of the Andalusian health system public, has indicated that the reason why Andalusia was raised to regulate this area, is the number of cases that have been recorded. Therein, we find that cases clinically equal, the various administrations gave very different responses. For this reason, consider that the law on the autonomy of the patient was not sufficient in our field ”.

In this order of things, seemed clear that we should fight against the perception that clinical at the end of life decisions are assimilated to euthanasia. Euthanasia is a concept that is regulated in article 143 of the criminal code and, therefore, is the State regulatory. In Andalusia we set out to regulate precisely, it is not euthanasia; in other words, aspects such as the right to information, palliative sedation, informed consent, the limitation of the therapeutic effort and therapeutic rejection. We wanted to provide a legal framework to regulate in more detail these activities and that professionals could exercise them with legal certainty ”.

The expert pointed also to Although bioethics committees already existed, its role was better articulated with the Andalusian law. Over time, the bet of Andalusia with its Bill of rights and guarantees of persons in the process of death demonstrated that Yes it was necessary, as well it is checking with similar legislation in the autonomous communities of Aragon and Navarre ”.

The director of the strategy of bioethics of the Andalusian health system public has stressed also that our goal in developing the law was twofold: improve the quality of health care and give legal certainty to the professional ”. He has also indicated that currently are in the phase of evaluation and development which will be the first report of the law, which will be submitted in the Andalusian Parliament ”.

The voice of patients

the President of the Association right to die Dignamente in Andalusia, Isabel Torres, has expressed its belief that citizens associations are complementary institutions, because we arrived where they fail, thanks to our greater proximity to citizens ”.

For Isabel Torres, with the rules of Andalusia with its Bill of rights and guarantees of persons in the process of death, falls short in several respects. For example, refers in his articles to coverage for terminally ill or dying, when from our Association we claim that it also help patients with serious diseases or pathologies irreversible ”.

The President of the Association right to die Dignamente of Andalusia has not hesitated to say that our aim is to promote each person to choose freely when you want to end his life ”, if that is the case, which is why want the legality of euthanasia and assisted suicide ”.

From our partnership we seek to influence politicians, so that they respond to these requests, because there is still much pain, much anguish, and much hypocrisy on the issue of the death ”, has underlined.