Spain's euthanasias increase 32.6% in 2025 as neurological diseases overtake cancer

Five years of the euthanasia law

Spain's Ministry of Health released provisional figures during the conference "Five years of the Organic Law on the Regulation of Euthanasia: Advancing in rights". Since the law took effect in June 2021, 1,668 people have received aid in dying, with a total of 3,716 requests. The number of procedures has risen every year, reaching 565 in 2025, a 32.6% increase over 2024. Concurrently, requests rose 38.2% to 1,284.

A shift from cancer to neurological conditions

While initial requests are dominated by oncological diseases (37%), neurological pathologies accounted for 46% of the euthanasias actually performed. Among the 1,284 requests in 2025, neurological diseases represented 31%, behind cancer, but among those who completed the process, the proportion inverted. This suggests that cancer patients more often die before the procedure is carried out, as shown by the fact that 61% of the applicants who died during processing had oncological conditions.

Marked territorial inequalities

The rate of requests varies sharply by region. Catalonia had the highest rate, at 6.14 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Navarre (5.41) and the Basque Country (5.13), all well above the national average of 2.61. At the other end, Murcia recorded only 0.5, and the Valencian Community, Extremadura, and Andalusia all remained below 1.3. The association Right to Die with Dignity (DMD) attributes these gaps not to demographic differences but to unequal information provided to patients, uneven training of doctors, and varying openness of the evaluation committees.

Deaths during the waiting period

In 2025, 1,187 processes concluded, of which 565 (47.7%) resulted in assisted death. However, 374 people (31.5%) died while the procedure was still being processed. The majority, 277, died before the Guarantee and Evaluation Committee issued its report, with an average wait of 32.7 days. Another 97 died after a favorable report but before the scheduled procedure, with an average time of 104.9 days from the initial request. Additionally, 157 requests (13.2%) were denied, mostly by the responsible physician at the outset, and 91 (8%) were revoked.

Demographics and international context

Of those who received the aid, 83.9% were over 60 years old. The procedure took place in a hospital for 51%, at home for 35%, and in a social-health centre for 14%. A healthcare team administered it in 98% of cases. Spain's euthanasia rate, at 0.13% of all deaths, remains far behind countries like the Netherlands (5.96%), Canada (5.1%), and Belgium (4%), though it has been steadily growing since legalisation.