Overview
- The Consejo Interterritorial del Sistema Nacional de Salud approved the 2026 Manual de Buenas Prácticas en Eutanasia as a national technical guide while the Comunidad de Madrid formally voted against the document.
- The manual codifies new procedures: it allows discussion of organ donation after the procedure, designates a nurse as the team reference, extends postponement of the request to up to six months, and instructs that deaths from the procedure be recorded as natural.
- Madrid’s health council argued the manual goes beyond the 2021 law by adding scenarios that should be set by Parliament, and said the guide lacks objective clinical tools and routine mental-health interconsultation for complex cases.
- The Health Ministry defended the manual as a practical synthesis of four years’ experience and blamed Madrid for trying to block an established legal right, framing the dispute as a policy clash over implementation.
- The approval creates official national guidance that could improve administrative clarity for patients and families but may produce uneven practice across regions and prompt demands for legislative clarification or more palliative resources.