The PP presents a plagiarism of the palliative law of Madrid as an alternative to euthanasia | Society
The palliative care law presented by the Popular Party in the Congress of Deputies last Tuesday, which aims to be an alternative rule to the euthanasia law promoted by the PSOE, is a literal copy of another law called Rights and Guarantees of people in the process of dying that the Assembly of Madrid approved in March of 2017 at the initiative of the Madrid socialists, as has been verified by EL PAÍS.
After months of paralysis in the Mesa del Congreso, the popular ones made public at the beginning of the week their intention to present an amendment to the whole to the proposal of law of the PSOE that transacts the House of Representatives, that currently has enough support to be approved.
The proposal of the popular contains, in addition to the preamble and the final provisions, 21 articles. All of them, except one, are a word for word copy of the law of the Community of Madrid. The only cases in which differences are observed are the use of synonymous expressions (in seven occasions the PP uses "end of life" instead of the verb "to die"), the mentions to the Community of Madrid (that the popular proposal changes for "National Health System") and some other minimum detail. The only article added by the PP is 16, on "the training and training of professionals."
But so striking is what the PP proposal includes as what it omits. The Madrid law included in its final part a sanctioning regime composed of eight articles that defines control and sanction mechanisms for health professionals who fail to comply with the norm. The popular have left this regime out of their proposal.
The deputy of Health of the PP, Pilar Cortés, justifies the initiative of his party. "Our goal is to make clear the rejection of the euthanasia law. An alternative text has been presented that seeks to guarantee access for all citizens to palliative care and, being aware that it will not succeed, it is logical that we have resorted to existing regulations, "says Cortés. She recalls that already in the preamble of her proposal it is mentioned that the text "is declared direct heir" of the autonomous laws of Galicia and Madrid.
José Manuel Freire, spokesman for Health of the PSOE in the Assembly of Madrid and promoter of the law of Madrid, describes the fact "plagiarism and legislative embarrassment." "We already know that all laws are inspired by others, but this is unprecedented. The Madrid law was designed for the reality of this community. It was an important commitment of our group, led by Ángel Gabilondo, and we managed to take it forward unanimously in the Assembly after accepting an amendment, "says Freire.
"What is inconceivable is that now the PP take this law for another area, the whole of the State, and do so as an alternative proposal to the law of euthanasia, which is a solid and mature demand of society as a whole in a different field . This is a better example of how the PP really does not care about patients and the only thing that seeks to use these sensitive issues to use them politically, "concludes Freire.
The popular proposal also contains another striking point in its preamble, when it equates "consent [de los pacientes]"to be part of a process of euthanasia with which there would be in cases of" sale of organs or the acceptance of one's own slavery, or any other degrading treatment or commerce for the human being ".
