On the morality of euthanasia and assisted suicide

In the last five years major changes have occurred in the social and political arena in Spain. In light of new ethical reasoning and empirical data from the Netherlands and Oregon, reflection on the morality of assisted death is opportune. Today in Spain insistence on the ideas of the economy of moral disagreement and of mutual respect is essential and, based upon the teachings of experience, some of the reasonings used by critics of policies in favor of decriminalization must be refuted. Without forgetting other important aims in the care of the terminal patient, the available data are sufficiently strong to support the ethical purposefulness of decriminalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia.