The Constitutional Court of Ecuador approved this Wednesday (7) the legalization of euthanasia in the country, in response to the request of a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Paola Roldán, a 42-year-old woman who suffers from ALS, a serious and incurable disease that affects the nerves and muscles, asked the court in 2023 to allow her access to assisted death, claiming that the suffering caused by the disease is intense and unbearable.
The court, with seven votes in favor of its nine judges, declared the “conditional constitutionality” of article 144 of the Ecuadorian Penal Code, which punishes a “person who kills another” with sentences of ten to 13 years in prison. According to the Court, the article will be constitutional whenever a doctor agrees to a patient's request for active euthanasia in a “free, informed and unequivocal way, due to intense suffering resulting from a serious and irreversible bodily injury or a serious and incurable illness “.
The court also declared the “additive constitutionality” of article 6 of the Code of Medical Ethics, so that it enables the doctor to carry out the euthanasia procedure within the conditions contemplated by the court itself, in order not to be punished for homicide. Furthermore, the court declared unconstitutional article 90 of the Code of Medical Ethics, which established that “the doctor is not authorized to shorten the patient's life” and that “his fundamental mission in the face of an incurable disease will be alleviated through therapeutic resources of the case.”
It was also determined that based on this decision, the Ombudsman's Office will have to prepare, within six months, a bill that establishes the procedures for the application of euthanasia and that the Ministry of Health of Ecuador will have two months to develop regulations for the procedure. The court also determined that the National Assembly, the country's Parliament, will have 12 months to approve a law regulating euthanasia.
With the decision of the highest court, Ecuador becomes the third country in Latin America to allow euthanasia. Colombia and Cuba are the others that also allow the procedure. (With EFE Agency)
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