María José Carrasco and Ángel Hernández, at their home, in December 2018.carlos rosillo
The Madrid Provincial Prosecutor's Office will only request six months in prison for Ángel Hernández, the man who on April 3, 2019, helped his wife, María José Carrasco, commit suicide, almost immobilized by the multiple sclerosis she suffered.
In a note issued by the institution, the representative of the Public Ministry accuses him of a crime of cooperation with suicide, but, at the same time, announces that “in the event that a conviction is handed down and a pardon file is processed, the Public Prosecutor's Office , considering the concurrent circumstances in the present case, it will issue a favorable report ”.
The Prosecutor's Office specifies that in this case "the extenuating confession and kinship concur".
"I do not forgive anyone that people die suffering"
María José Carrasco spent eight years waiting for a residence
In its brief, the Public Prosecutor's Office details the entire process since Carrasco was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1989, seven years after his relationship with Hernández began, and how he was focusing on his care, until “in 1999, the accused took a leave of absence from work and, from that moment on, dedicated himself exclusively to caring for his wife ”.
It is also related how, as of 2007, the couple applied for a place in a residence in the Community of Madrid, "being denied it by the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs."
Sources from this department declared when the circumstances of the case became known that in the period between the first request and the woman's suicide they were offered a place on one occasion, but that they rejected it because they did not consider it appropriate to the characteristics of the woman .
They also said that the couple's socioeconomic conditions made it difficult for them to access the service.
The Public Prosecutor also reports how the woman's will to end her life before being completely prevented from doing so had been manifest for years, and that at least as of 2018, “María José's requests to end her life with dignity were constant.
He made a last will and expressly stated that he refused to be fed artificially (nasogastric tube or percutaneous gastrostomy) ”.
The couple gave an interview to this newspaper in October 2018, six months before the suicide, where she reiterated her will to take her own life.
His voice was forced and a little guttural, because his throat and abdominal muscles were already paralyzed enough, Carrasco was conclusive.
When asked if he did not want to wait for his situation to get worse to receive palliative care, he clearly said to the camera: "I don't want to sleep, I want to die."
It is also clearly seen in the video that Hernández recorded, who was a television cameraman in the Madrid Assembly, her willingness to ingest the medicine with which she was going to kill herself, and how he asks her several times if she is determined to commit suicide, and she answers yes.
The couple released this recording to various media, since both were clear about their intention that their case was a call for the Spanish Parliament to process a euthanasia law.
If that rule were in force they would not have had to resort to suicide, they told this newspaper.
The law is in the process of being processed after Congress rejected the entire amendments proposed by PP and Vox in September.
Congress knocks down the attempt of PP and Vox to stop the euthanasia law
The accusation's brief includes those last moments as follows: “As the couple had agreed, around 10:00 am on April 3, 2019, being alone at home, Ángel, with the intention of fulfilling María José's wish, that she was immobilized in her bed, "she poured the medicine they had bought online" into a glass with a straw and held it to her mouth, with Mrs. Carrasco being the one who swallowed it with the straw.
At 10 minutes ”, the substance“ caused the death of María José due to an acute poisoning that caused respiratory and neurological depression in her. ”“ The accused then called the emergency room to tell what had happened. And he waited in the domicile upon arrival of a staffed National Police Corps ”.
In an unusual twist, Hernández's case ended up in a gender violence court, which is the one that has carried out the proceedings so far.
According to the man's lawyer, who learned from the press of the Prosecutor's letter, this is very favorable - even if they sentenced him to six months he would not have to go to prison - but it will depend on him what they are going to do, now that for the accused his case is not only something personal, but he has made an effort to make it public to promote the legalization of a dignified death.
