CYBE-UGR and the Spanish Ministry of Health join forces to advance the ethical governance of End-of-Life care

Medical assistance in dying is a legal right, and ensuring its effective implementation requires robust data, training and continuous evaluation. With this objective, the University of Granada and the Spanish Ministry of Health have signed a collaboration agreement to promote research, education and the evaluation of end-of-life practices aimed at strengthening and safeguarding this right to a dignified death. The agreement, which entered into force following its publication in the Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado, BOE), will run for three years and is jointly funded with a total budget of €616,500. Over this period, it will support an ambitious programme of activities designed to benefit both healthcare professionals and the wider public.

One of the agreement’s main objectives is the creation of a harmonised and comparable registry across Spain’s autonomous communities covering the different end-of-life practices, a system that does not currently exist. From palliative care and advance care planning to the provision of euthanasia—regulated in Spain since 2021 under the Organic Law on the Regulation of Euthanasia—the agreement provides for the systematic collection of data and the harmonisation of regional databases. This will make it possible, for the first time, to conduct rigorous and regular interregional analyses of end-of-life practices throughout the country.

The current fragmentation of information makes it difficult to identify inequalities in access to care or detect regions where the implementation of the legal framework may be inadequate. The agreement seeks to address this fragmentation by establishing working groups with scientific societies and fostering direct coordination between institutions responsible for public health policies. Alongside its clinical and regulatory dimensions, the agreement also incorporates a social perspective aimed at assessing public awareness of, and satisfaction with, end-of-life care. Through dedicated surveys, researchers will examine the public’s knowledge of the available options and their perceptions of the quality of care received, with the goal of identifying potential gaps between the services provided by the healthcare system and the expectations and needs of society.

The agreement also places a strong emphasis on education and training. Its activities are aimed at researchers, healthcare professionals, health service managers and members of the general public without specialised training. The findings generated through the research programme will inform the development of educational initiatives tailored to the needs identified, while also supporting research placements and providing bioethics and end-of-life advisory services to public and private organisations.