The Tarragona Court confirms the first euthanasia of a prisoner in Spain

In an order, which can be consulted at the end of this information, the magistrates conclude that the right of Marin ES to die in an assisted manner should prevail over the right to effective judicial protection of the victims of the shooting. “A fundamental right such as euthanasia cannot be identified as a voluntary act of subtraction from Justice,” the robed settle.

The investigated, remember the judges, is in a serious state of health, with “constant physical and mental suffering with no possibility of relief” and a “limited” life expectancy. His presence on the defendants’ bench “would suppose an intolerable affectation to his dignity and to his physical and moral integrity”, the resolution stresses.

Marin ES, investigated for five attempted homicides, has been hospitalized since last December for a spinal cord injury after being shot by the police. The judge ordered his admission to prison, which has not been effective as the man has not been able to leave the hospital. The defense of those injured by Marin ES is considering going to the Constitutional Court after the Tarragona magistrates rejected their appeals against euthanasia.

The exceptional case of Marin ES has explored the limits of the recent euthanasia law. Both the investigating judge first and now the Tarragona Court have concluded that the rights to physical and moral integrity, dignity and personal autonomy of the accused prevail over the interests of the victims to have a trial.

The euthanasia of Marin ES also had the approval of its doctors and the evaluation commission of the Generalitat, made up of lawyers, doctors and bioethics experts, which examines all requests for dignified death to verify that they comply with legal requirements. . The conclusion they reached was that the man suffers from “serious, chronic and disabling suffering.”

A substitute judge had paralyzed the euthanasia of Marin ES while the Court did not decide, which resolves the resources of the injured in line with the instructor. The judge stressed that she could understand the “discomfort” of the victims, but recalled that there is no right to punishment since Marin ES’s desire to die with dignity “takes precedence” “because of its proximity to the core of the right to life”, without being able to make distinctions “based on their life trajectory” for their assessment.

The magistrates of the Court support the instructor, whose “reasoned and reasonable” car they highlight. The magistrates settle the debate and resolve that in a criminal case, with the law in hand, euthanasia is “fully comparable” to death from natural causes. Both types of death entail the extinction of criminal responsibility and the closure of a case, but do not prevent victims from seeking compensation from the deceased’s heirs through civil means.

The law of euthanasia, remember the robes, does not give the judges any competence to paralyze the process, and only allows their intervention to resolve an appeal against the denial of assisted death.

In addition to their lack of jurisdiction to stop euthanasia, the judges delve into the clash between rights and argue that the right to effective judicial protection invoked by the victims “does not confer an unconditional right” to hold a trial or receive a sentence. And in any case, they add, the rights of Marin ES must prevail despite the “undeniable pain” that the shooting has caused the victims.

Marin ES opened fire at the office of a security company in the center of Tarragona, seriously injuring three former colleagues. In his flight he wounded a plainclothes constable. The gunman barricaded himself in an abandoned farmhouse and given his refusal to talk to the police, the Mossos Special Intervention Group shot him down and arrested him. Earlier the gunman had also shot at the officers. He will finally fulfill his will to die with dignity.