{"id":257515,"date":"2021-11-20T12:03:41","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T18:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=257515"},"modified":"2021-11-19T12:34:05","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T18:34:05","slug":"als-euthanasia-jordi-sabate-pons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/als-euthanasia-jordi-sabate-pons\/","title":{"rendered":"Man with ALS fights pro-euthanasia law, says people should be guaranteed a ‘dignified life’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

A Spanish man living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is fighting to make sure people know his life — and the lives of everyone with medical conditions — are worth living, despite the cultural belief otherwise.<\/p>\n

Jordi Sabat\u00e9 Pons was diagnosed with ALS over six years ago<\/a>\u00a0and has been an outspoken advocate for life ever since. Advised to undergo euthanasia, Pons refused, and instead, spends his life fighting to ensure people with ALS are recognized as valuable members of society. He clearly has an uphill climb, which was made apparent during\u00a0an interview<\/a> with Spanish media outlet Vozp\u00f3puli, when the journalist implied that a person can’t love life if he has ALS.<\/p>\n

Vozp\u00f3puli: I extract[ed] this from your profile on social networks: \u201cI cannot move, speak, eat, or drink and I breathe with difficulty. I love life”. It seems that the two parts of the sentence are contradictory, but there you are … Is it difficult to maintain that attitude?<\/em><\/p>\n

Pons: I honestly do not see that they are contradictory. I love life because I can still enjoy many things: I can see, hear, feel; And just for those simple things I am already happy. ALS, by not affecting cognitive and intellectual capacity, allows me to be myself, who I have always been, and I like that a lot. To me honestly, it is not difficult for me to have this [attitude], it comes out on my own. Look, I think that when you hit rock bottom, a force suddenly arises that makes you go back and appreciate the positive things that life gives you. That is, at least, what has happened to me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pons further explained that for the most part, people with ALS have been abandoned by the government. “We convert our homes into ICUs without having the help and assistance of qualified health personnel,” he said. “They abandon us and if you don’t have money to pay for your vital assistance we have only one option to choose from, death… [f]rom my point of view, passing the ‘euthanasia law’ before guaranteeing a dignified life first is an atrocity. Currently, we cannot choose to live or die freely. We only have aid to die, so we have no alternative other than death. In Spain, 96% of ALS patients cannot afford the cost of the disease and, with the approval of euthanasia, death is already being put on a platter. It is inhuman, the aid to live would have to [take] priority before everything.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0