Supreme Court of Peru grants euthanasia for the first time

For the first time in local history, the Supreme Court of Peru on Thursday authorized euthanasia for psychologist Ana Estrada, who suffers from an incurable disease, confirming an order from a court of first instance that will allow someone to take her life when she does. want without being punished.

In a statement, the highest court indicated that with the decision of the supreme judge Augusto Ruidías, the four votes in favor necessary to grant that right to Estrada were combined, compared to two votes against. Ruidías held a session in June to decide his vote.

Estrada, 45, has suffered for more than 30 years from an incurable disease called polymyositis that has paralyzed almost all his muscles. Despite this, she studied and practiced her profession, until five years ago her deterioration forced her to stay in bed by compromising her respiratory muscles.

Euthanasia in Peru is not allowed and anyone who helps another who requests it to die is punished with up to three years in prison. An exception will be made in the case of Estrada.

The psychologist tweeted: “She has won her life and the right to autonomy and freedom. Every conquest of a right is born from the need of an ordinary citizen, never from the rulers.”

This “struggle is feminist: to be the only owner of the decisions about my body. So thank you guys. To those who opened the path for us, even putting their lives for the rights that we take for granted today, ”she added.

The “protocol of action” on how the right to die with dignity obtained by Estrada will be executed has not yet been decided, the Court said. A social security doctor will perform euthanasia in the future, when she orders it.

The right to a dignified death granted to Estrada was prompted by a request for amparo made by the Ombudsman’s Office on behalf of the psychologist. The Ombudsman indicated in a statement that the Supreme Court notified him of the decision.

“It is a truly transcendent sentence because it recognizes the right to decide in the final part of her life, to end suffering, to end a condition that she may eventually consider not worth living,” Walter Gutiérrez told public television. Estrada’s lawyer.

“The State had expropriated, not only Ana, but citizens in general that right, because it is possible that we eventually have a disease that deteriorates us, that makes us suffer and that makes our existence irresistible. So it is a right fundamental because the right to freedom is recognized, the right to dignity is recognized and the right not to suffer cruel and inhuman treatment is recognized,” added Gutiérrez.

Estrada participated in Judge Ruidías’ session in June from her clinical bed inside her small bedroom, which she describes as a kind of “intensive care unit.” She explained that she valued life and was not asking to die immediately, but to take control of his will, his autonomy and his decisions.

He said that his process of deterioration cannot be changed, but the “epilogue” of his life can be if they let him decide. “I want the power to access the euthanasia procedure when I can no longer suffer in life and want to say goodbye to my loved ones in peace and quiet,” he said.

At that time, Estrada told the judge that for several years she has been assisted by a nurse and is “bedridden, connected to a ventilator” to breathe through a hole in the trachea in an increasingly “difficult and exhausting procedure.” ”. With short hair and glasses, she thanked the judge for allowing her to participate and added: “I hope, with all due respect, that it will be the last one, which would mean that I have conquered my right to decide on my life.”

In her apartment located in a middle-class neighborhood in Lima, Estrada writes a blog titled “Ana for a dignified death,” where she recounts the reasons that led her to make the decision to request authorization for euthanasia. In 2019 she wrote: “dignified death in Peru is illegal, I live in a state that takes away my freedom, and a life without freedom is not life because my body belongs to this state.”

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