Euthanasia apply a non-terminal patient for the first time in Colombia

Víctor Escobar, 60, and who suffered chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and hypertension, among other problems, became Friday in the first C

Euthanasia apply a non-terminal patient for the first time in Colombia

Víctor Escobar, 60, and who suffered chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and hypertension, among other problems, became Friday in the first Colombian on receiving euthanasia without being a terminal patient and after having made the decision to have "A dignified death."

"It was possible to reach the goal that patients like me (...) came to win this battle, which opens the doors for the other patients who come behind me and that, at this time, they want a dignified death," said Victor In your farewell message before you are interned for the procedure at a Cali (Southwest) clinic.

This man, who in the multiple interviews that held him in recent weeks showed difficulty talking and moving, is the first Colombian to receive the procedure since the Constitutional Court authorized him in July for patients with non-terminal diseases.

The court failure, which modifies the "homicide by piety" of the Criminal Code and who previously contemplated penalties of up to 54 months in prison, nullifies that first requirement that the person who requests it suffer from a terminal disease, and makes it motivated by The barriers that still persist in the country to exercise this right.

"This is a very important moment for Colombia, it is the first patient at the Latin American level that will receive euthanasia without being a terminal patient," said Víctor's lawyer, Luis Giraldo, in a video published in his social networks.

For several years, Victor, who was a truck, suffered from COPD and other diseases such as the sequelae of a severe cardiovascular accident, who were deteriorating his life and taking him to depend even on another person because he could not fend himself.

The man began for two years to look for the way he was practiced by euthanasia but found themselves with barriers like medical centers denied the procedure because he was not a terminal patient.

However, the panorama changed with the court's decision and, after an arduous judicial struggle in which he even denied the euthanasia again, a court of Cali ordered the health provider (EPS) to be practiced by the procedure As it happened today in a clinic whose name was not revealed.

In the last days of his life, Víctor enjoyed the league title of his Soul Team, Deportivo Cali, who even invited him to meet the players in October of last year.

The idea is that your organs are donated to patients who need them, as he said before dying.

The fears of Victor and his family not to be conducted by the media Martha Sepúlveda case, a woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ELA) who canceled euthanasia hours before they were practiced in October. The case of Sepúlveda became known in September when in a Snail news report she told her the desire of her to die at 51 years of age.

However, hours before the process was practiced, the Colombian Pain Institute (INCODOL) decided to cancel the procedure to "have an updated concept of the state of health and evolution of the patient" with which "is defined not to be It complies with the criterion of terminality as it had been considered, "he said in a statement.

At the end of October, a judge ordered that medical center to program the procedure again, which has not yet been performed.

Colombia was the first country in Latin America to decriminalize euthanasia and is one of the few in the world where it is legal after the constitutional consecrated decent death as a fundamental right in case of terminal disease when the patient suffered from a lot of pain, He would request him voluntarily and do it a doctor.

Although it is legal since 1997, this right is not began until 2015 and the procedures still face barriers, as it is only done in certain cities and many medical centers do not know how to act.

In the country, only 178 euthanasia procedures have been carried out since April 2015 until October 15, 2021, according to the Ministry of Health. According to the Laboratory of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (DISCLAB), 2021 was the year with more euthanasies practiced, with 47 procedures in total.

Date Of Update: 08 January 2022, 07:51