About ten states allow euthanasia.
Ecuador decided on Wednesday to allow euthanasia, i.e. mercy killing, as one of the few countries in the world.
Thus, doctors in Ecuador can help end the life of a terminally ill patient without fear of punishment.
Most Western countries forbid such active assisted dying but allow the patient to refuse treatment intended to save his life. This is also the case in Finland.
News agencies AFP and Reuters report that Ecuador's Constitutional Court has decriminalized euthanasia thanks to a lawsuit filed by a terminally ill patient.
“I want to rest in peace. My life is painful, lonely and cruel”, Paola Roldán said according to AFP.
Roldán, 42, suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which gradually destroys the motor nerves that control the muscles.
About Ecuador, with a population of 17 million, became the third country in Latin America to allow euthanasia. Colombia and Cuba have done so before, according to Reuters.
Euthanasia is also allowed in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Canada, New Zealand and much of Australia.
At least Switzerland, Austria and a few US states allow assisted suicide instead of euthanasia, where a doctor administers lethal drugs to the patient.
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