Spanish Congress advances euthanasia reform to cap judicial appeals at 25 days, defying Papal plea

The vote

The Spanish Congress of Deputies voted 178 to 169 on Thursday to take into consideration a legislative proposal that would accelerate the judicial review of euthanasia decisions. Only the conservative Partido Popular (PP) and the far-right Vox opposed the measure, while the governing Socialist Party (PSOE) and all other groups supported it. The vote opens the parliamentary path for a reform aimed at preventing prolonged legal battles that can delay medically assisted death.

What the reform proposes

The proposal, drafted by the Catalan Parliament and backed by the Socialists' Catalan branch (PSC), Junts, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the Comuns and the anti-capitalist CUP, seeks to cap the resolution of judicial appeals against euthanasia approvals at a maximum of 25 days. It would also limit the appeals process to a single judicial instance and a higher contentious-administrative court.

“It is obvious that prolonging the procedure necessarily entails constant and intolerable physical or psychological suffering for the person in this context.”

The text stresses the need to avoid prolonging "in an unnecessary and inhuman manner the suffering" of the person who requested assistance to die.

The Noelia Castillo case

The reform was directly inspired by the case of Noelia Castillo, a young woman whose euthanasia was delayed by more than 600 days due to legal challenges brought by her father, Gerónimo Castillo, with legal representation from the Abogados Cristianos (Christian Lawyers) organization. After exhausting all national judicial instances (including the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court) and finally the European Court of Human Rights, Castillo finally received medically assisted death on 26 March 2026. Her father's appeals had kept the case alive for nearly two years, despite all previous courts upholding the approval of her euthanasia request. The Catalan MPs stressed that the reform would close the loopholes exposed by this ordeal.

“We have already won this right; what this reform seeks is to perfect it.”

Opposition from PP and Vox

PP deputy Antonio Román Jasanada argued that "when a decision is irreversible, there is never too much safeguards," rejecting the shortening of deadlines.

“Dignity is in life, from beginning to end.”

Vox's María Ruiz went further, accusing proponents of advocating killing.

“You cannot come here to talk about dignified death when what we are talking about is killing people.”

She branded the existing euthanasia law a "cruel law." Both parties voted together against the reform.

Papal context

The vote came just 72 hours after Pope León XIV addressed the same chamber, delivering a staunch defense of the right to life and opposing both abortion and euthanasia. All political groups had given the Pontiff a seven-minute standing ovation, yet on Thursday, most of them backed a proposal that runs counter to his message. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had attended the Pope's Mass at the Sagrada Familia basilica the day before the vote, a break from his usual laicist stance.