- In 2021, nearly 2,300 new registrations were registered, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
- The Right to Die with Dignity Association in Andalusia demands that more registration points be enabled.
Nearly 2,300 Andalusians decided throughout 2021 to register their advance living will, known as a living will , a resource that reflects the medical care that a person wants or does not receive when the time comes, and that the Board launched in in 2004 under the protection of a previous law of 2002, regulating patient autonomy and rights and obligations in terms of information and clinical documentation.
Specifically, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Families of the Board at 20minutes , there were 2,296 registrations that took place last year, which meant 18.6% more than the 1,935 registered the previous year, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the figure remains below the records of 2019, when 3,886 living wills were registered in Andalusia, the highest annual figure since at least 2011 – the data between 2004 and 2010 is grouped and amounts to 18,480 records.
With last year’s new wills, the total number of anticipated vital wills that are registered in the community amounts to 48,333 , a figure that, taking into account the size of the Andalusian population, with almost 8.5 million inhabitants, is not particularly elevated.
Demand for more points
This is how the president of the Right to Die with Dignity (DMD) association in Andalusia, Isabel Torres, values it in statements to this newspaper, who regrets that in the community “there are many obstacles” to being able to register the living will , despite having been this one a pioneering region in the matter, with the approval in 2010 of the first Law of Dignified Death in Spain, which went ahead with the current Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, as Minister of Health of the Board.
“There is very little information and little will to do it well,” says Torres, who demands that the Administration increase the points in which the living will can be registered. “It would be advisable to do it in all health centers” , proposes the DMD representative, who understands that “Primary Care is saturated, but it would be enough if there was one person one day a week” dedicated to this task.
Torres also criticizes the fact that the possibility of requesting an appointment electronically has been eliminated. “Now it can only be done through the Salud Responde phone, and that is causing more and more waiting lists .” Likewise, he considers that it is essential that the Board offer more information on the anticipated living will. “It’s not that people don’t want to do it, it’s that they don’t know how,” he says.
From the Ministry of Health, they defend that the points currently enabled for the registration of the living will “are those that are stipulated in the decree.” Specifically, in the province of Seville there are up to ten registration points, according to information from the Board: four hospitals are added to the Territorial Health Delegation (Virgen del Rocío, Macarena, Valme and La Merced de Osuna); and five health centers distributed throughout the province (Constantina, Écija, Mairena del Aljarafe, Morón de la Frontera and Utrera). At a regional level, there are 56 enabled points in Andalusia . To the ten in Seville we must add another ten in Jaén; seven in Granada and as many in Malaga; Almería, Cádiz and Huelva, with six in each province; and four in Córdoba.
People of legal age or emancipated minors can register the living will , and for this it is necessary to request an appointment through Salud Responde (955 545 060). System that must also be used in the event that the registered person later wants to modify their living will.
For Torres, concludes the president of DMD Andalusia, registering this document is “an act of responsibility, generosity and love towards those around you so that they do not have to decide for you”.
Euthanasia resolutions
The association Right to Die with Dignity assures this medium that in Andalusia some 20 requests for the application of euthanasia have been resolved favorably so far , after the entry into force of the state regulation. However, the president of DMD in the community, Isabel Torres, assures that “they have given people a lot of trouble, adding more pain to them than they already have.” Some even “died before their request was resolved.” From the Board they point out that they cannot provide data in this regard, but they assure that “the law is being complied with.”