After a long battle in Colombia, Martha Sepúlveda died on Saturday (8) through euthanasia.
The woman had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a serious and incurable disease, and died at age 51 at the Instituto Colombiano de Dor (Incodol), in the city of Medellín. The information was revealed through a statement from the Laboratory of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which works in the causes of human rights.
“Martha Sepúlveda agreed to euthanasia and died in accordance with her idea of autonomy and dignity,” the organization said. “She left in gratitude for all the people who accompanied and supported her, who prayed for her and exchanged words of love and empathy during these difficult months,” the statement added.
In Colombia, euthanasia was decriminalized in 1997, but it only became law in 2015. In July 2021, the country’s Constitutional Court extended the right to a dignified death to those suffering “intense physical or mental suffering” due to a injury or incurable disease.
The Martha Sepúlveda case had become the first in which euthanasia was authorized in a patient without a terminal illness. Sepulveda would be euthanized on October 10. However, the Instituto Colombiano de Dor, the private clinic that treated her, announced the suspension of the procedure 36 hours earlier.
The argument was that the Interdisciplinary Scientific Commission for the Right to Die with Dignity “decided unanimously to cancel the procedure”, determining that “the criterion of terminality was not fulfilled as had been considered by the first commission” that evaluated the case.
However, the Colombian justice revoked this suspension of the procedure at the end of October and ordered the Instituto Colombiano de Dor to comply “with the established with the interdisciplinary scientific commission to die with dignity” in an August 6 decision.
In that resolution, a panel of experts determined that the patient met “the requirements to exercise her right to die with dignity through euthanasia,” the judge said.
The magistrate considered that Incodol violated “the fundamental rights to die with dignity, to a dignified life, to the free development of Martha Sepúlveda’s personality and human dignity”, and determined that a new date be set for euthanasia.
The case generated a broad debate in the country about the right to opt for assisted death.
In a September interview with Caracol TV, Sepúlveda talked about her wish to die. “On the spiritual plane, I’m totally calm (…) I’ll be a coward, but I don’t want to suffer anymore, I’m tired. I fight to rest”, she declared. She added that the certainty that she would soon die gave her “peace of mind”.
She added: “I’m Catholic and I consider myself a very believing person. But God doesn’t want to see me suffer.” “With lateral sclerosis as it is, the best thing that can happen to me is for me to rest.”
Since being diagnosed with ALS, her family said that Sepúlveda’s life had become one of torment. The news that she could end it was a relief, her son Federico told BBC News Mundo.
Second case of euthanasia in a non-terminal patient
On Friday (7), the day before euthanasia was applied to Sepúlveda, another patient became the first to receive the procedure in the country, and in Latin America, without having a terminal illness.
Victor Escobar, a 60-year-old Colombian driver, suffered from several incurable degenerative diseases: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and hypertension, as well as having suffered two strokes, in 2007 and 2008.
As a young man, he had been in a car accident that required him to undergo three spinal surgeries. In the last years of his life, he had several mobility problems and needed oxygen daily.
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