Uruguayan deputies approve project to authorize euthanasia

First modification: 07/10/2022 – 12:03

Guaranteeing the right to die with dignity for patients who are terminally ill or who suffer unbearable suffering, is what this bill proposes, which must still pass through the Uruguayan Senate. The South American country could become one of the few countries to authorize euthanasia.

“Majority support of the population”

“The project that was approved in the Chamber of Deputies enables euthanasia in two main cases: in the terminal stage of irreversible incurable diseases, which produce a serious deterioration in the quality of life and unbearable suffering, and on the other hand, in cases in which, although not in a terminal stage, there is unbearable suffering and progressive deterioration of the person’s quality of life. In these cases, which must be verified by two doctors who will act independently, euthanasia will be enabled, ”deputy Ope Pasquet, writer of the bill approved this Thursday in first reading, explains to RFI.

Will it be difficult for the Senate to approve it? “Surely it will be difficult, but I am confident that approval will finally be achieved, because it is a project that was supported by both legislators from the current government coalition and opposition legislators. In addition, all the opinion polls that have been carried out clearly detect majority support from the population, with 70 or 80% in favor of the euthanasia bill”.

The project, which merges proposals from the center-right Colorado Party (a member of the ruling coalition) and the leftist Broad Front (opposition), had the transversal support of deputies from all parties to reach 57 votes out of a total of 96.

“Living will”

For Florencia Salgueiro, a member of the Empathy Uruguay collective that has been calling for the legalization of euthanasia for several years, the future law represents a great advance, although with certain limitations: “One of the issues that were discussed and left out had to do with leaving an advance directive or a living will. If I find myself in this situation in the future and I am not in a position to express my will, I will leave it in this will. This, in this project, for example, is not. So if a person, let’s say, has cancer but at the same time has Alzheimer’s, then he could not receive euthanasia because he is not mentally fit, but he cannot put it in writing beforehand, ”he stresses.

“But”, he clarifies, “the truth is that it is a detail, most of the people who would be entitled to this with this law will be able to access that benefit”.

In the world, few countries regulate euthanasia or assisted suicide, this is the case of Switzerland, Spain, Holland, Belgium, for example. In Latin America, Colombia is the only country where the practice is legal.