Health renews the ‘Good Practice Manual on Euthanasia’, five years after the law
The Interterritorial Council of the National Health System has just approved its second edition, which incorporates the experience accumulated in five years of implementation.
The Organic Law on the Regulation of Euthanasia came into force in Spain in 2021, making the country one of the few in the world where this service is recognised as a right. Since then, the Good Practice Manual on Euthanasia has been the technical reference guide for the autonomous communities to apply the regulation in a homogeneous way. The Interterritorial Council of the National Health System has just approved its second edition, which incorporates the experience accumulated in five years of implementation.
More than 3,716 applications since 2021
Provisional data for 2025, presented by the Ministry of Health to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the law, confirm sustained growth in euthanasia. There have been 565 assisted dying procedures, 0.13% of deaths recorded in Spain, and since 2021 a total of 1,668 people have exercised this right, out of 3,716 applications. Catalonia, Navarre and the Basque Country account for the highest rates in the country.
