#discussion What is euthanasia

The term comes from the Greek eu (meaning good) and thanatos (death). So etymologically means 'good death'. But from a scientific or medical point of view, it is much more. Euthanasia is the process of accelerating the death of a person with an incurable disease to prevent him from suffering. In euthanasia it is always a medical team that gives the drugs to the person who wants to die.

What is assisted suicide
In assisted suicide, instead of a doctor, it is the person who wants to die who ends his life by taking a lethal drug, with all the risks that this entails. This is, for example, what Ramón Sampedro did in 1998.. Assisted suicide in Spain is criminally punishable as euthanasia, with two to 10 years' imprisonment. In Switzerland it is practiced. There, in certain centers, a doctor prescribes the drugs, but it is always the patient himself who takes them directly.
What is palliative sedation

It is the administration of drugs to reduce awareness and relieve pain in a patient with a terminal disease. This is what has been usually done in Spain in the face of the impossibility of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The goal of sedation is to achieve the greatest physical, psychological and spiritual well-being of the patient in his last moments.
The world map of dignified death

Euthanasia is legal only in Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Canada and the state of Victoria in Australia. Assisted suicide can be done only in Switzerland and in several US states. All these countries have different requirements to be able to carry out these practices. In most cases the following coincide:

1. Only the person who wants to die can ask. Neither spouses, parents nor children can do so.
2. It has to be a free and repeated decision over time.
3. The ailment has to be incurable and unbearable pain.
4. Two physicians should verify that all these requirements for euthanasia or assisted suicide are met.

• Euthanasia involves direct intervention by a doctor to accelerate the death of the patient.

•In assisted suicide it is the patient himself in whom he ends his life

•Terminal sedation relieves pain at the end of the patient

These were patients from Spain, who made the decision of assisted death
• Ramon Sampedro
• Maria Jose de Hernandez
• Luis de Marcos
• Immaculate Echeverria
• Maribel Telkaetxe

All of them fought for a dignified death and for the decriminalization of euthanasia

Ramón Sampedro was the first to request assisted suicide in Spain

This February 11 has started in Congress the process for decriminalization