Ramón Sampedro Cameán ( Galis. Ramón Sampedro Cameán , Porto do Son , January 5, 1943 - Boyro , January 12, 1998 , Galicia , Spain ) - a Galician sailor and the author of two books, was paralyzed as a result of an accident and thirty years sought the right to voluntary departure from life. The first Spanish citizen to defend this right in court.
Ramon Sampedro Kamean | |
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Ramón Sampedro Cameán | |
Birth name | |
Date of Birth | January 5, 1943 |
Place of Birth | Puerto del Saone , Spain |
Date of death | January 12, 1998 (55 years old) |
Place of death | Boyro , Spain |
Citizenship | Spain |
Occupation | sailor, poet; disabled person fighting for the right to euthanasia |
Content
Biography
Disability
Ramon Sampedro was born in a fishing town in northern Spain and at age 19 entered the merchant marine as a ship mechanic, wanting to see the whole world, because, as he joked, “this is the best way to travel for free.” But on August 23, 1968, at the age of 25, he unsuccessfully jumped from a cliff into the sea and broke his spine. As a result of this injury, he was completely paralyzed below the neck, - in his own words, turned into a talking head on a dead body. Doctors made the final diagnosis: tetraplegia (paralysis of four limbs), because of which he will never be able to move [1] . According to their forecasts, he had no more than three or four years of life. However, Ramon lived for almost 30 years, bedridden in a farmhouse off the coast and surrounded by family concerns: parents, daughter-in-law, brother, nephews, and friends.
Complete stillness did not weaken his mind and did not deprive his will and strength. He read a lot and wrote it himself, holding a pen in his teeth, joked a lot, spoke on the phone and even worked on a computer with his mouth, actively communicated with people. But he did not consider such a life to be full; the spirit of freedom, the thirst for wanderings and adventures could not remain imprisoned in an immobilized body. It was unbearable for an adult, once strong man, to remain in a helpless position all his life. “The world is worth living,” he claimed in a television interview, “and being free is wonderful, the drama is to live without freedom.” “A dream has become a nightmare,” he wrote in his book. And this nightmare could last for many more years, since Ramon was almost not sick and they had long-livers in his family: in 1998, his father was 92 years old. However, due to the stillness, he could not commit suicide . To do this, he needed outside help, but euthanasia in Spain is illegal and the promotion of suicide is punishable by imprisonment for a term of 6 to 10 years [2] . Therefore, Ramon began the struggle for the right to death.
The struggle for the right to euthanasia
When Ramon decided to end his life, it is not known exactly. But the decision was firm and deliberate. According to his best friend, Pepe Vila, a member of the Right to a Worthy Death Association, Ramon was an “excellent psychologist” and knew how to tell everyone what they wanted to hear, and, appeasing his interlocutor, he asked everyone the main question: “Will you help me?” [3]
Since the beginning of the 90s, Ramon Sampedro led judicial battles with the state. “It is absurd to make a person a slave to medical ethics, priestly morality or the hideous and terrible protection of the almighty father of the State.” He was supported by the Barcelona Association for the Right to Decent Death, which quickly gained supporters in Galicia and attracted the attention of many people. He himself was not an activist of the euthanasia movement, but only defended his right to choose, the right to manage his own life.
In April 1993, he appealed to a civil court in Barcelona with a request not to prosecute those who would assist him in suicide, but was refused. On July 18, 1994, the Constitutional Court of Spain did not accept his appeal on the grounds that he should first appeal to a court of territorial jurisdiction . On 17 May 1995 the European Commission of Human Rights refused to accept his complaint, as the applicant had not exhausted all domestic remedies of his right.
On July 12, 1995, Sampedro filed a lawsuit in the court of first instance in Noah , asking his doctor to allow him to prescribe medications that could allow him to die with dignity, but not to prosecute the doctor under the law prohibiting the promotion of suicide. On October 9, 1995, the court refused him, citing the fact that Section 143 of the Criminal Code does not allow the court to allow a third party to contribute to suicide or death of a person.
Ramon appealed. By a decision of November 19, 1996, a court of the province of A Coruña (a higher court) upheld the decision of the trial court. On December 16, 1996, Sampedro filed a statement with the Constitutional Court about a violation of his constitutional rights to human dignity, life, physical and mental integrity, and a fair trial. On March 10, 1997, he was assigned a period of 20 days to submit his final complaints, after which he could only wait. But the date of the proceedings was never set, and Ramon did not wait for the court decision.
But the story of the judicial defense of his rights does not end there. Already after Ramon’s death, on April 7, 1998, his sister-in-law Manuel Sanles, who had looked after him all his life, informed the Constitutional Court that, as the applicant’s heir, she intended to continue the proceedings that he had begun. On 11 November 1998 the court dismissed the case and denied the applicant the right to represent the case of the late brother-in-law.
Then, Manuela Sanles appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on the grounds that the request of her brother-in-law to provide him with medical assistance in order to end his torment completely falls under article 8 (the right to respect for private life) of the Convention on Human Rights , whereas State intervention in the form of a ban on promoting suicide contained in the criminal code is unlawful. She also alleged that articles on the right to life, liberty and security, freedom of conscience, the prohibition of torture and the right to a fair trial were violated.
However, by a decision of October 26, 2000, the court dismissed her complaint, citing the fact that it does not make abstract decisions regarding the erroneous interpretation or misapplication of the articles of the constitution , but protects the individual from actual violation of her rights, and that the complaint can only come from the victim himself (For details on the above proceedings and the full text of the decision, see the search portal of the European Court of Justice HUDOC).
The UN Human Rights Committee made the same decision on March 30, 2004 (date of appeal March 28, 2001) [4] .
Death
About three months before his death, his friends transported him from a farm to a town apartment in Boyro , as his family had always been categorically against his suicide. On the chosen day, a camera was installed in the room, filming everything that was happening. In the presence of a close friend of Ramon Maneiro, he read his will:
Lord judges, politicians and church leaders,
After you just saw how they care for an atrophied and deformed body - my body - I ask you: what does dignity mean to you?
Whatever your conscience answers, for me it is not a virtue. This does not mean living with dignity!
I, like some judges and most people who love life and freedom, think that living is a right, not an obligation. However, I was forced to endure this painful position for 29 years, 4 months, and several days.
I refuse to do this any longer! [...]
I turned to justice with the aim that my actions would not have criminal consequences for anyone. The wait has been going on for five years. And since such sluggishness seems to me a mockery, I decided to put an end to all this in the form that I consider the most worthy, humane and reasonable.
As you can see, in front of me is a glass of water containing a dose of potassium cyanide. After drinking it, I will refuse - voluntarily - from the most legitimate and personal property that I own, from my body. I will also free myself from humiliating slavery - paralysis. [...]
You can punish the neighbor who loved me and was consistent in this love, that is, he loved me as himself. Of course, for this he had to overcome the psychological fear of your retribution - this is his only crime. [...]
If, in spite of my arguments, you decide to punish him approximately, I advise you - and I ask you - to do justice: cut off my accomplice’s hands and legs, because only that was what I needed from him. The mind was mine. Therefore, this is my act and my intention. [...]
Lord judges, politicians and church leaders,My consciousness was not locked in my disfigured, atrophied and insensitive body, but in the ugliness, atrophy and insensibility of your conscience.
Then, using a straw, he drank water with poison. Several of his friends gathered this cyanide bit by bit, and he planned all the preparations so that each individual action of his assistants could not entail a murder charge. What kind of friends these were, not even Maneiro knew. It was he who came up with this plan, and Maneiro, in her own words, was only “his hands”.
“There was no turning back,” she writes in her book, “Dear Ramon.” - We looked at each other, and I continued to whisper with him ... I was happy, thinking that now he would close his eyes and fall asleep. Goodbye Ramon. But convulsions started ... I thought that everything would happen very quickly, but the agony dragged on ... "The woman admitted that Ramon did not expect such an action. Judging by his moans, this was not the peaceful departure they hoped for. No one knew the exact dosage of the poison. When Ramon's eyes closed, she ran out of the room and shut her ears so as not to hear groans. Reproaching herself for her weakness, she wanted to return and hug him, but did not break the plan that he had been considering for years.
The next day, Maneiro was taken to the police, and she spent two days in the cell, but due to lack of evidence, the case was closed. Although relatives of Ramona Sampedro consider her a murderer, they do not want to prosecute anyone according to the law.
This death stirred up the whole of Spain and attracted attention in other countries. The funeral held in his hometown was attended by many people.
However, by the decision of the family, his last wish that his body was cremated, and the ashes scattered above the sea from a cliff on the beach of As Furnas, where he made his fatal leap [5] , was not fulfilled.
Books
Ramona Sampedro :
- Cartas desde el infierno (Letters from Hell), Planeta , Madrid, 1996. ISBN 84-08-05632-8 .
Sampedro's first book survived several reprints [6] ; in 2005, more than 100 thousand copies were sold [7] . The book includes the letters of Ramon Sampedro to different people, its output marked the beginning of a wide public discussion about euthanasia.
- Cando Eu Caia (When I Leave), Edicións Xerais de Galicia , Vigo, 1998. ISBN 84-8302-260-5 .
A posthumous collection of poems in Galician , then translated into Spanish (Castilian) . With a foreword by the famous Spanish writer Manuel Rivas , a friend of Ramon.
About Ramona Sampedro :
- Florencio Martínez Aguinagalde, Confieso mi cobardia: alegato intimo en favor de Ramón Sampedro (Florencio Martinez Aginagalde, I confess my cowardice: a speech in defense of Ramona Sampedro), Elea , Bilbao, 2005. ISBN 84-933988-5-3 .
The book is a famous journalist and university professor, author of books on journalism. Aginagalde talks about his correspondence and telephone conversations with Sampedro and assesses two positions: Sampedro's unshakable decision to cease his existence of a thinking corpse and the author's cowardly fear of the threat of being brought to trial, which made him refuse his last help.
- Ramona Maneiro, Querido Ramón: Un Testimonio de Amor (Ramona Maneiro, Dear Ramon: testimony of love). Temas de Hoy , Madrid. ISBN 978-84-8460-442-6 .
“I hope that Ramon, wherever he is, will direct this story. He is mine and his: this is our child, whom we could not have ” [8] . Ramona Maneiro tells the story of her love for Ramona and how she came to the decision to help him pass away, what she experienced after his death and why she decided to tell about everything seven years later.
The Sea Inside
In 2001, the first feature film about Ramon Sampedro Condemned to Life ( Condenado a vivir ), which did not cause much interest, was shot.
In 2004, director Alejandro Amenabar made the film “The Sea Inside, ” which tells about the last two years of Ramon’s life, played by Javier Bardem . The film was a great success with both the public and critics, and has collected more than fifty prizes and awards, including an Oscar for the best foreign language film and 14 national Goya awards . The source for the script was the book "Letters from Hell," and the name is taken from the poem of the same name, which also sounds in the film.
Mar adentro, mar adentro, Un beso enciende la vida El abrazo más pueril, Tu mirada y mi mirada Pero me despierto siempre |
Further to the sea, further to the sea A kiss ignites life The innocent hug Your gaze and my gaze But I always wake up |
Public outcry
Surveys of 1995 showed that the majority of Spaniards are in favor of excluding the promotion of suicide from the list of criminal acts. However, the position of the Catholic Church is strong, speaking out categorically against any kind of euthanasia.
In the two months after the death of Ramon Sampedro, about 3 thousand people wrote letters acknowledging that they helped him die. Left-wing parties submitted to the Spanish parliament a bill to legalize euthanasia, which was rejected.
On March 4, 1998, Spanish television broadcast a video showing the last minutes of Ramon Sampedro's life. The company Antena 3, the first to show the film, justified its decision by the fact that the film was transferred to them free of charge and voluntarily, and, in addition, only a few minutes were broadcast, and the moment of death itself was not shown.
With the release of the film “The Sea Inside,” public discussion unfolded with renewed vigor. In 2005, after her statute of limitations had expired, Ramona Maneiro publicly admitted that she had given her friend a glass of poison. She appeared on television, talking about the last hours of Sampedro's life, in order to raise the issue of euthanasia again, as Ramon wanted, and "once and for all to end speculation." “I did it out of love, but common sense made me come to terms with it,” she said. “I am not Teresa’s mother ... I felt very good with him, but I knew that he had to leave because he wanted it.”
In response, Manuela Sanles said on January 10, 2005, that it was a murder and that his family intended to seek the “euthanasia that he wanted, and not the one that Ramona gave him.” According to Manuela, he knew many women, but everyone said to him: "Ramon, you have no reason to die." "He was a very intelligent person and fought to die with dignity, but found one black hand." Maneiro said to this that "everyone must decide for himself."
In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the death of Ramon Sampedro, newspapers, both local and national, published articles about him. Many of his friends, supporters, members of the Right to Decent Death Association, with the participation of the local authorities of Porto do Son, held commemorative events. Readings of his poems and letters, an exhibition devoted to his life and the topic of voluntary care passed. Those who wanted to honor his memory threw flowers into the sea in the place where the accident occurred.
Notes
- ↑ However, there is an opinion (for example, here ) that with appropriate physiotherapy and rehabilitation, he could eventually move, at least own his upper body, but he refused rehabilitation.
- ↑ In September 2008, the Spanish government announced that it intends to develop and adopt a law allowing euthanasia. Zapatero's latest challenge: a law on "assisted suicide". (inaccessible link)
- ↑ Ramón Sampedro sigue en casa .
- ↑ Manuela Sanlés Sanlés v. Spain
- ↑ Ramón Sampedro sigue en casa
- ↑ ISBN 978-84-08-05632-4 , ISBN 987-1144-98-9 , ISBN 85-7665-080-0 .
- ↑ “Cartas desde el infierno”, de Ramón Sampedro, supera los 100.000 ejemplares vendidos Archived March 10, 2016 at Wayback Machine , La voz de Galicia newspaper Archived November 5, 2008 at Wayback Machine
- ↑ Fragment from the book (inaccessible link) .
- ↑ “The Sea Inside” is the literal translation of the words “mar adentro”. However, this expression means “open sea” or “into the open sea”, the same meaning follows from the context of the poem and the film. That is how it was translated in the text of the film when it was released in Russian.
Sources
- Live and Let Die , Time January 26, 1998
- Suicide Tape on TV Inflames the Issue in Spain , The New York Times March 9, 1998
- Maneiro insiste en que dio el cianuro a Sampedro por amoriente su familia la llama “asesina” , El País dated January 11, 2005
- Un plan de años , El País dated January 21, 2007
- Ramón Sampedro sigue en casa , El País on January 13, 2008. On the tenth anniversary of the death.
- Ni caliente ni demasiado frío , online edition of La Opinión A Coruña of May 18, 2008
- Los errores sutiles del caso Ramón Sampedro
Links
- The text of the will of Ramona Sampedro in Spanish and translated into English
- Asociación Federal Derecho a Morir Dignamente - website of the Right to Decent Death Association; Ramon Sampedro page
- Sampedro revive na súa vila
- Hablar de amor pero estar muerto
- Yo te espero en el cielo - fragments of the last letters of Sampedro
- Poem "Cuando yo caiga" and a list of other verses
- El vídeo de una muerte voluntaria