Ecuador Joins Countries Allowing Doctors to Help Patients to Die

Ecuador has become the second country in Latin America after Colombia to decriminalize euthanasia.

Its constitutional court voted seven to two in favor of allowing doctors to help a patient die.

The court said the crime of homicide would no longer apply to clinicians working to preserve the right to a dignified life.

The lawsuit was brought by a woman suffering from a neurological disease known as ALS.

She had told the court in November that she was experiencing pain, loneliness, and cruelty, and wanted to rest in peace.

The Roman Catholic Church, to which most Ecuadorians belong, remains staunchly opposed to Euthanasia.

Colombia decriminalized Euthanasia in 1997.

Read Also:

Hamas Responds To Proposed Gaza Ceasefire Plan

After the ruling, MS Roldán told reporters that her country had become a little more welcoming, freer, and more dignified.

But Roldan’s lawyer Farith Simon on Wednesday insisted in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the sentence is immediately enforceable.

Roldan’s father told reporters that he had mixed feelings about the outcome of the case.

There is the satisfaction that Paola has been able to achieve a historic event, it is a legacy for Ecuadorian society, he said.

But his family has a half-broken heart because there could be an outcome… which is the death of my daughter, he added. We are supporting Paola.

Writing on social media Friday, when she learned that her case before the high court was in the final stage, Roldan said: Several times I thought that I would not be able to see the fruits of this lawsuit, like someone who plants a tree so that someone else can sit under its shadow.