Of course, Puri and Salvador were completely torn apart when their daughter Ana, 28, told them that she could no longer bear the pain, that each day was a suffering and that the next day would be more, and the next, and the next, that not being able to move even a minimal part of her body was not life. And for that reason, I wanted to request euthanasia.
Dying accompanied by them, with love, with peace of mind, but not at home. Because he wanted to donate his organs, so he had to die at the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid, the center where he had spent part of his life entering and leaving. Ana was born with spina bifida, a disease that never gave her respite and ended up causing her horrific pain, hydrocephalus and neurological damage, among other sufferings.
“No parent is prepared to see a child die, but Ana was clear about it, as well as donating”
“No parent is prepared to lose their child, but Ana was very clear about it. She was only worried that we would suffer. But we agreed that it was her decision, it was her life, it was her body,” explain Puri and Salvador. Respect and a lot of love. Ana, they point out, had time throughout her life to think about everything, even death and “we only had to be with her.”
Their testimonies were heard recorded at the 20th meeting between communication professionals and transplant coordinators held at El Escorial, where they wanted to make it very clear that euthanasia does not, in any case, involve donation. They are independent decisions of each person. In Ana’s case, donating was a scenario that she always contemplated. “At the age of 18 she became a blood and organ donor. We were and she grew up with this reality,” they say.
Ana died at the Gregorio Marañón hospital in 2023, some time after she received authorization to provide aid in dying. “He asked for it to be delayed a little so we could spend Christmas together.”
At that time, Ana said goodbye to all her friends, family and the theater group to which she had belonged with her mother. Even from that family member who was waiting for a lung transplant. “What a shame that I can’t give you an organ (donation is always anonymous in Spain), but wherever I am I will mediate so that you get that lung,” his parents remember. Shortly after, that family member received an organ and was transplanted.
Two months later, Ana’s parents received a letter from the person who received their daughter’s heart.
Two months later, when Puri and Salvador were grieving for their daughter’s death, the transplant coordinator gave them a letter from a person who had received their daughter’s heart. The transplant recipient did not know anything about her or her parents, nor that she herself decided on the donation because her death was due to euthanasia.
Regarding that letter from the recipient of their daughter’s heart, Ana’s parents say: “She thanked us that we had donated Ana’s organs (the transplant recipient did not know anything about her or the parents, nor that it was she herself who decided the donation because her death was due to euthanasia), that she was going to take care of that heart with all the care in the world, giving it all the opportunities that Ana had not had… That letter came to us at the best moment, when we were devastated. It confirmed to us what Ana wanted: to give life.”
Between 2021-2024, there have been 154 donors after euthanasia, which have allowed 442 transplants. Ana is one of them.
Spain, prepared to study pig organs
Spain is prepared to join the experimental work to create animal organs for humans (xenotransplants), which is being carried out by the EU, specifically Germany. This is the only European country with a genetically modified pig farm. In fact, this is what they are going to propose in the coming months and it is more than likely that Spain will participate in experimental studies before the summer. This was stated by the director of the National Transplant Organization (ONT), Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, at the meeting between communication professionals and transplant coordinators that was held in El Escorial and which this year reaches its twentieth edition. But, immediately, he wanted to make it clear that pig organ transplantation is “very far away.”
The Arrixaca hospital in Murcia is the center that has been nominated as a candidate to study these procedures, as confirmed by Domínguez-Gil. He has a long history in transplants and has been a pioneer in preclinical xenotransplantation studies, such as the one carried out 25 years ago and which involved the implantation of a genetically modified pig liver in a baboon, achieving a survival of eight days. China and the United States, on the other hand, are the powers that are most advanced in xenotransplantations.
