Overview

• Senators passed the bill 20–11 after a lengthy debate, and chamber leaders said it would be sent immediately to the Executive for enactment.
• Access is limited to mentally competent adults who are citizens or residents and who face incurable or irreversible illness with unbearable suffering or severe, progressive loss of quality of life.
• The process requires a written personal request, counseling on alternatives including palliative care, a second independent medical opinion, potential review by a medical board, and a final written declaration before the procedure can proceed.
• Deaths under the law are classified as natural, cases must be reported to the Health Ministry, and an honoraria review commission led by the ministry—with representatives from the medical college, the national university and the human rights institution—must be formed within 90 days of regulation to issue annual reports.
• Conscientious objection is protected for clinicians and institutions, which must ensure substitutes to provide access, and provision is restricted to providers within the national health system such as ASSE, mutualists, private insurers, Sanidad Militar y Policial and the Hospital de Clínicas.