Joan de Alcázar is one of the 35,000 Valencians who have made a Living Will and defends euthanasia
Joan of Alcazar he is 67 years old and is a professor of Contemporary History at the University of Valencia. He speaks calmly, with arguments and convinced in his defense of euthanasia.
And it is that he is also a member of the Right to Die with Dignity Association (DMD) in the Valencian Community. She declares herself an activist and although she applauds the Organic Law for the regulation of Euthanasia that came into force in June 2021, she goes one step further in her defense of a dignified death. “I don’t want to be dying to die& rdquor ;, he explains.
The norm is clear and establishes some parameters to make euthanasia effective. Thus, the law establishes that this practice is may carry out on patients who request them and who are in a context of “serious, chronic and disabling condition or serious and incurable illnesscausing intolerable suffering & rdquor ;.
In the Valencian Community and complying with the parameters established by the euthanasia law “in the Valencian health centers have received 50 requests for euthanasia, of 28 women and 22 men. In the resolution of the files there are 8 unfavorable, 9 deaths in the process, 1 in process and 32 favorable,” say sources from the Ministry of Health.
Joan de Alcazar explains that the law “is an extraordinary advance & rdquor; but “just contemplate that you can choose your end if you are dying. But I defend, and I believe, that life belongs to us and that we should have the freedom to decide when that life stops being comforting without having to die bellowing.”
Joan raises her voice for the sake of create awareness and do pedagogy regarding the importance of “reflecting on death & rdquor; and to carry out the living will or advance directives, a document in which a person expresses his will in advance regarding the care and treatment of his health, in order that it be fulfilled at the moment in which situations arise in whose circumstances not be able to express them personally or, once death has arrived, on the fate of his body or its organs.
The National Registry of Prior Instructions is in charge of collecting the will for medical care of a patient in the event of a very serious illness or the destination of their organs in the event of death, and since the law was approved, it also includes the request for aid to die.
According to sources from the registry of the ministry and the Right to Die with Dignity (DMD) association, from 2103 to the present more than 35,000 Valencians have presented their living will and half (more than 15,000, which implies 5 requests a day for 9 years ) have specified their desire not to lengthen their life and suffer “therapeutic relentlessness & rdquor;, which is interpreted as a request for euthanasia that was not legal until a year and a half ago. Thus, Living Will documents went from 14,474 in 2013 to 35,833 in 2022.
“Repeat” the Living Will
For this reason, from the entity they remember whoever carried out these Wills to this end “that the living will must repeat and specify the request for euthanasia because although it is understood that they requested it in their day in the only way that the system allowed, euthanasia was illegal and will not be effective. There are many people who call the association because they had the previous document and want to know if they should modify it or not.”
In fact, the Government approved in May 2022 a royal decree to include in the National Registry of Prior Instructions the provision of assistance to die, euthanasia, so that citizens can include this will in their living will.