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HEALTH

Spain takes tentative first step to legalising euthanasia

Spain's lower house voted Thursday in favour of examining a bill on legalising euthanasia, a first in the country even if there will likely be major opposition as it weaves its way through parliament.

Published: 10 May 2018 14:41 CEST
Spain takes tentative first step to legalising euthanasia
Photo: racorn/Depositphotos

Lawmakers voted 173 against 135 — and 32 abstentions — to examine the bill, which was originally drafted by Catalonia's regional assembly.   

This is the first time that a bill aimed at legalising euthanasia makes it past this first hurdle after previous attempts failed, a parliament spokeswoman told AFP.

It seeks to modify part of article 143 of Spain's penal code, which currently bans anyone from causing or cooperating with the death of another person suffering from “a serious, terminal illness or one that causes serious, permanent ailments that are difficult to endure.”

The bill would make it legal for a person to cause or help cause the “reliable, peaceful, painless death” of another suffering from those problems if they “specifically, freely and unequivocally” ask for it.

Currently in Spain, people with incurable diseases only have the option to refuse treatment.

But according to an opinion poll conducted by research firm Metroscopia in March 2017, 84 percent of Spaniards are in favour of allowing people with terminal illnesses to be helped to die “painlessly.”

Lawmakers from Spain's conservative ruling Popular Party and another from the regional party of Navarra voted against accepting the bill on Thursday.   

Centre-right party Ciudadanos, meanwhile, abstained, while all the other groupings in parliament — most of them left-wing — voted in favour.   

Now that it has passed the first hurdle, the bill will go through various stages in parliament — with different groups likely to present their amendments — before it gets to the final voting stage in the lower house.

HEALTH

Are Danes cutting back on cigarettes and alcohol?

Danish stores sold a significantly lower quantity of alcohol and cigarettes over the counter last year, new data from Statistics Denmark show.

Published: 14 June 2024 07:42 CEST
Are Danes cutting back on cigarettes and alcohol?

Some 3,852 cigarettes were sold year, which amounts to 804 per person over the age of 18. But that compares to a figures of 854 per person on 2022.

Cigarette sales in Denmark have been declining since 2018.

Sales of sprits, beer and wine fell by 7.8 percent, 5.3 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.

Danish business sold the equivalent of 44.4 million litres of pure alcohol, which works out at 11.9 units per week on average for each person over the age of 18.

Although that is a lower value than in 2022, it still exceeds the amount recommended by the Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen).

The Health Authority recommends that adults over 18 drink no more than 10 units per week and no more than four in a single day.

READ ALSO: Should Denmark raise the minimum age for buying alcohol?

“The numbers are still too high and it’s an average that could have a skewed distribution,” University of Southern Denmark professor, Janne Tholstrup, said in relation to the alcohol sales figures. Tholstrup has published research on Denmark’s alcohol culture.

That is in spite of a 30-year-trend of falling alcohol consumption, according to the professor.

“The majority of Danes stay under the recommended 10 unite per week. That means there is a large group with a persistently excessive consumption of alcohol,” she said.

The Statistics Denmark figures also show that sales of loose tobacco – such as the type used in roll-up cigarettes and pipes – also fell last year. Some 58 tonnes less were sold compared to 2022.

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