CNA Staff, Dec 18, 2020 / 16:01 pm
Spain's parliament has advanced a euthanasia and assisted suicide bill that Catholic leaders had decried as "a defeat for all" which abandons those who suffer.
The Congress of Deputies, the lower house of Spain's legislative body, passed the bill by a Dec. 17 vote of 198 to 138, with the backing of the country's left-wing coalition and several other parties. The conservative Popular Party and the far right Vox party voted against the bill.
Protesters had rallied against the bill outside of the parliament building in Madrid. They held a banner that said "Government of death."
"The euthanasia law is a defeat for civilization and a victory for the culture of death, for those who believe that some lives are more worthy than others," said Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, BBC News reports.