Overview
- Provisional figures from the Ministerio de Sanidad show 1,284 euthanasia requests in 2025, 1,187 completed evaluations, 565 procedures performed, 157 denials, and 374 people who died while their cases were pending.
- Uptake remains a tiny share of deaths nationwide at about 0.13%, with País Vasco, Navarra and Cataluña recording the highest rates while overall use is far below countries like the Netherlands.
- Regional gaps and slow processing persist, with DMD Galicia reporting 44 requests and 13 procedures in 2025 and an average wait of 55.6 days versus the law’s 30–45 day target.
- Legal tensions have intensified after a recent Supreme Court ruling that permits third‑party challenges to a person’s request, and DMD says roughly a dozen appeals have been filed over denials.
- Advocates are calling for a single national protocol, better clinician training, a registry of conscientious objectors, and faster, standardized processing as oversight reports from regional bodies are still incomplete.