The Justice of Colombia decriminalized on Wednesday the the doctor assisted the suicide. It is a decision made by patients who are suffering from an injury or a serious and incurable illness and, therefore, are undergoing physical and psychological illness that is incompatible with their idea of ​​dignity. Training, naturally, should have the intervention of a health professional.

The Constitutional Court of that country, with a vote of six in favor and three against, decided to legalize this method after studying the case filed by the Laboratory of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (DescLAB) and admitted by the high court on September 1 last year.

The petition seeks to declare the conditional implementation of the second paragraph of article 107 of the Penal Code, which establishes sentences between 32 and 108 months in prison for those who “effectively incite others to commit suicide, or give of effective assistance for its realization. “

“When encouragement or assistance is intended to end severe suffering resulting from bodily injury or serious and incurable illness, the prison will last from 16 to 36 months“, added the sued article.

The purpose of DescLAB, as clarified, is not that “assisted suicide will be committed by any person in any case”, but rather that the Court will decide that “when a medical professional helps for other people to end their lives under certain conditions, will not receive criminal punishment“.

In this context, the Court decided to decriminalize physician-assisted suicide when the person expresses their freedom, with knowledge and clear consent perform.

The difference with euthanasia

DescLAB explained that, in doctor -assisted suicide, “the medical professional provides help or assistance so that the person is the cause of their death”, while in euthanasia the doctor is “the cause of the person’s death”.

“Both euthanasia and doctor -assisted suicide they have the same purposecause the death of a person who meets legal requirements. The difference is the role of the doctor and who causes death“, it argues.

Along these lines, Lucas Correa Montoya, director of research at DescLAB, pointed out that this is a “new mechanism” that, along with euthanasia, “will allow access to a medically assisted, free, safe and with death. “

“This decision is a global milestone because the decision in favor of the DescLAB lawsuit puts Colombia in the place of the most developed states and countries on the subject,” Correa added.

Cases of euthanasia in Colombia

Víctor Escobar, 60, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and hypertension, among other problems, became the first Colombian to receive euthanasia without being a terminal patient since he was ordered by Constitutional Court on January 7. authorized in July.

Another similar event took place a few days later in that country. Martha Sepúlveda, a woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), was able to exercise her right to die with dignity, after euthanasia was canceled in September hours before it was performed.

Colombia was the first country in Latin America to decriminalize euthanasia and one of the few in the world where it is legal after the Constitutional Court included the honorable death in 1997 as a fundamental right in the case of deadly disease when the patient suffered severe pain. . , will be spontaneously requested and it will be performed by a doctor.

Only 178 euthanasia procedures were performed in the country from April 2015 to October 15, 2021, according to the Ministry of Health.

With information from EFE

DB