The association Right to Die with dignity in Aragón (DMD) is clear that Emilia’s case should not be repeated, however, they have already detected another that “begins to look too much like”, as recognized this Wednesday by the president of the group, José Luis Trasobares, after a meeting with representatives of the Department of Health. The counselor was present for only a few minutes because she attended the debate on the state of the community. This meeting was scheduled before the suicide of the 83-year-old woman from Zaragoza, after four months of waiting to obtain a response to her request for euthanasia from her Primary Care doctor. Nor had the administration provided a second physician after the doctor accepted conscientious objection.
The association is aware of the processing of five petitionsTherefore, they consider that “there is no tsunami and everyone can be cared for.” Of them – one is Emilia’s, the only one with chronic disease because the rest have to do with degenerative diseases or cancers – three are developing “normally”, according to Trasobares, and even one “the guarantee commission has already passed and control and is pending euthanasia “. And there is a room that” begins to look too much “to that of the deceased, because it is paralyzed” at the first level “. Also the doctor who has to attend the case and process it” no he doesn’t even want to take the paper “and, as in the 83-year-old woman, a replacement must be appointed and this is where” there is a risk of jamming. ” It is this case that “is several days behind the schedule that he had to keep.”
For this reason, the association considers that the “fundamental problem is in the gateway for applications “, since “the fact that a doctor is an objector does not exempt them from their obligation to initiate the request” because there will already be other instances that will take care of it going ahead or being paralyzed.
In this sense, Trasobares insists that a Primary Care physician has to “assume his administrative function” and “be receptive to the wishes and needs of his patients. Before the Euthanasia Law” is the Patient Autonomy Law “, for which this “is not a body on which the doctor acts”.
The president of DMD considers that the doctors have to “talk to the patient” show a “relationship of sincerity and understanding with them” and this is something “fundamental”. For this reason, before the words to this newspaper of the doctor who attended the deceased that “she had many years of life” it would be necessary to ask her, says the president of DMD, that “of what life”, since in addition to a dislocation of congenital hip, aggravated over the years, in the last three Emilia did not leave the house.
Trasobares believes that “there is a law and some rights “Therefore, there cannot be four months of waiting before the processing of a petition, as happened to Emilia. In addition, the association carries out its own report to find out if it fits with the law and, it assures, the people who have requested it so far are those “who already have it internalized, who have suffered a lot” and are clear about their desire for euthanasia. “Everything has its limits and when there is no solution, the patient must be able to choose and shorten the transit “, points out.
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After the meeting held this Wednesday with representatives of the Department of Health of the Government of Aragon, a “line of collaboration” will be intensified, he says, to “contribute ideas to try to develop the law and in the coming days” we will speak at length with the counselor. “From DMD they value” positively “the attitude of the administration” and believe that from the top of the counseling “they understand” the requests and there is a “commitment” to comply with the law. They also define how quick response, removing from their position those responsible who “have not carried out the actions that their position should have carried out” in the case of Emilia. This measure has not pleased the Primary Care Medical Unions because they say that “the responsibility for the elaboration of the development regulations corresponds to the Government of Aragon” and “the responsibility applied by the department both to the Directorate of Primary Care of Sector II like to coordinator of the Torre Ramona health center team (where Emilia was attended)) should have been directed to higher levels of command “since these must be” mere transmitters “of the regulations.
It is this legal regulation that has to advance, according to Trasobares, as well as “the improvement of the entrance door”, aspects that will be included in the proposals to update the action protocol. Also the change of brochures addressed to health workers to “understand them with the most reluctant health personnel” so that there is a “clear protocol” of action; that training is increased before a “new” and “complicated” serviceBecause even if the doctor objects, “he has to process the request and continue the process.”
Reference-www.elperiodico.com