Asistencia sanitaria en el final de la vida ¿derecho o acción caritativa?necesidad de una ley estatal de cuidados paliativos

Abstract

Palliative care is integrated into the common services of the Recently, the AECC denounced that in Spain as a whole, one out of every two patients who need palliative care does not have access to it, either due to the scarce information on these services or the lack of resources. It is a fact that there is inequality in access to palliative care depending on the Autonomous Community. Some have specified the content of palliative care in the laws that regulate the right to a dignified death. On the other hand, each Autonomous Community, within its powers, determines the resources that are made available to the terminally ill. We are in the presence of an authentic human right of the terminally ill that would require equal treatment throughout the national territory. After having frustrated this possibility on two occasions, two Proposals of Law have been presented again, the processing of which coincides in time with a Proposition of Organic Law regulating euthanasia. Only if there is a real and adequate offer of palliative care can the terminally ill be truly free to decide.