A Romanian man who allegedly injured former co-workers before being shot by police has died after winning the right to euthanasia, in an unprecedenred case thar has stirred controversy in Spain.
Euthanasia
The national court in Tarragona on Aug. 5 upheld an earlier court ruling that, given his condition as a paraplegic, Marin Eugen Sabau, 46, had a right to euthanasia under a law passed last year.
Mr Sabau, a security guard, was accused of firing on colleagues in a rage before being shot in the spine by police last December.
The unprecedented case was criticized in Spain, as the defendant was awaiting trial for attempted murder and other charges. Being euthanised meant he would not be tried for those crimes.
Security company
Mr Sabau allegedly fired on his former co-workers at a security company in Tarragona in eastern Spain, seriously injuring three people. He later shot and injured a police officer before being severely wounded by police marksmen.
The court said the law had not anticipated a situation in which a person facing criminal charges might request assisted dying.
Euthanasia was a “fundamental right” with which the judicial system could not interfere, the court said.
Spain’s euthanasia law allows adults with “serious and incurable” conditions that cause “unbearable suffering” to choose to end their lives.
Constitutional court
The decision was rejected by lawyers representing the wounded police officer, who appealed to the constitutional court.
In a statement released from the prison hospital in July, Sabau said: “I’m paraplegic. I’ve got 45 stitches in one hand and I can barely move my left arm. I’m full of screws and I can’t feel my chest.”
In its ruling, the court recognised that Sabau caused “pain as well as physical and moral damage to his victims” and that there was reason to assume he would be convicted of crimes.
However, it added, his condition causes “constant physical and psychological suffering without any possibility of relief and he faces the prospect of a very limited life”
