A Spanish woman suffering from muscular dystrophy has been allowed to die. Inmaculada Echevarria, 51, has spent the past nine years in a hospital in Grenada in southern Spain.

The regional government of Andalusia backed a request authorised by the ethics committee for her to refuse treatment – a right which is recognised by Spanish law.

“It is not fair for me to have to live like this,” she said.
“I’m fed up with this life.”

Echevarria, who is nearly totally paralysed, has been asking for the right to die since November.

In recent months, the Socialist government has backed away from campaign pledges to examine the question of legalising euthanasia.

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