Spain's Constitutional Court on Friday rejected the appeal of a father against his paraplegic daughter's euthanasia bid, setting up a final decision at European level for the unprecedented legal saga.
Spain is one of few countries to legalise euthanasia following a 2021 law that comes with strict requirements.
It stipulates that anyone of sound mind who is suffering from a "serious and incurable illness" or a "chronic and disabling" condition can request assistance to die.
The woman, in her 20s, was due to undergo the procedure in August 2024 after the euthanasia board in the northeastern Catalonia region supported her request.
But the process was suspended at the last minute after her father filed a legal objection backed by the conservative campaign group Abogados Cristianos ("Christian Lawyers"), with a court applying precautionary measures halting the euthanasia.
The father said his daughter suffered from mental disorders that "could affect her ability to make a free and conscious decision" as required by law.
He also said there were indications she had changed her mind and that her ailment did not entail "unbearable physical or psychological suffering".
The Constitutional Court announced it had unanimously rejected the father's appeal against rulings by the Supreme Court and lower legal bodies to halt the euthanasia.
The father had appealed citing "the violation of the right to effective legal oversight" and the right to life, but the Constitutional Court said there was a "clear absence of any violation of a fundamental right".
Abogados Cristianos said it would take the case to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, insisting that "fundamental rights are being violated, especially the right to life and effective legal oversight".
The woman, who became paraplegic after throwing herself from the fifth floor of a building in a 2022 suicide attempt, asked a court in April 2024 to allow her to exercise her right to die.
Her case was the first to reach a Spanish court for a judge's consideration since the 2021 euthanasia law was passed.