{"id":237619,"date":"2021-01-09T11:38:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T17:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=237619"},"modified":"2021-01-08T17:42:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T23:42:31","slug":"spanish-als-condemns-euthanasia-dignified-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/spanish-als-condemns-euthanasia-dignified-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish man with ALS condemns euthanasia: ‘We must prioritize a dignified life’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As Spain moves to legalize euthanasia, the Spanish people have been speaking out against it. One of them, 36-year-old Jordi Sabat\u00e9 Pons, has ALS, or Lou Gherig’s disease. And rather than embrace the chance to die at the hands of a doctor, Pons wants people to know that his life is one still worth living.<\/p>\n

Featured in Aleteia<\/a>, Pons is an outspoken activist for life. Over six years ago, he was diagnosed with ALS and is still alive, though the average life expectancy after diagnosis is just three years. What he can do is limited, but he still embraces each day he gets to live. Though Pons cannot eat, drink, move, or even breathe without assistance, he communicates with over 30,000 followers on Twitter with a machine that reads his eye movements.<\/p>\n

But the fact that people like him are often pressured into death has caused him to speak out. “Constantly colleagues who have the same fatal disease as me, ALS, tell me that they are forced to die, because they do not have human and economic resources for their vital care,” he tweeted. “My helplessness, my anger and my indignation have made me start the campaign #moveafingerforlife.”<\/p>\n

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As\u00ed me comunico con vosotros gracias a unos infrarrojos que leen el movimiento de mis ojos y me permite utilizar un teclado virtual para escribir y un reproductor de voz para hablar. ?? pic.twitter.com\/uoFrAbyEsh<\/a><\/p>\n

— Jordi Sabat\u00e9 Pons (@pons_sabate) August 24, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n