One might think that the moment in which the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador that legalized euthanasia was announced would be a moment of celebration, but that was not exactly the case. Paola Roldán, the woman with ALS who has achieved with her insistence this profound change in a conservative and religious country, in which the Church is the second most credible institution among citizens, has her voice breaking. The same thing happens to her relatives and her lawyers. They know that they are making history, it is what they wanted, but it means that Paola has the right to die and it is what she wants. You don't know if an imminent end can make you toast.
The justices had voted on the case Monday in a session that was not public. The sentence could be given at any time. Thus the days passed until Wednesday afternoon, when the news reported that the Court would announce its decision. He had prepared it in just six months, an unusual speed. At Paola's house everything revolved around her four-year-old son who runs and jumps. “We were watching the news and my son told me: Mommy, how beautiful you are on TV. “He lands us,” says Paola by phone a few hours before learning the details of the sentence. The day has passed between the daily things of a house and messages from relatives with other catastrophic illnesses who were also awaiting the decision. Between the common and the transcendental.
Paola, 42, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in August 2023. The degenerative disease quickly weakened the muscles in her body. Just a few months later she could no longer walk and was in bed with a respirator, unable to move. From there she leads everything in the house. She organizes the time capsule for her son, gifts, letters, photographs that he will receive on her birthday, her graduation, Christmas, special days for when she is away. “Shopping lists for my husband so he knows what to buy and doesn't have to worry, housework, bank account arrangements, I have organized everything, now I would like to leave something else,” says Paola. What is it? “A therapeutic support network for people with catastrophic illnesses and their families, and then rest.”
In recent months his body has weakened even more, the last health crisis was in December. “We didn't know what was wrong with me, and then we discovered that my body is rejecting oral nutrition. Now I'm alone with serums and vitamins and my body felt a shock, I couldn't even wake up, I slept for many hours. Now I am a little more used to it, losing weight little by little,” she explains.
His lawyers are now analyzing the fine print. It is not enough for judges to approve the decriminalization of euthanasia, since when and how it would be regulated was also important. In a second call with EL PAÍS, Paola reacts to the decision: “I don't know how to put into words that this is an option, it is not an obligation. It is for those of us who believe in it and also for those who are afraid of it, for those who are repelled by it. And that it is a decision that has been a request of mine from love, from compassion and I feel that the sentence reflects that.”
The Court accepted Paola's almost total request. It allowed euthanasia to be accessed under two parameters. That the person requesting it responds to a condition of intense suffering resulting from a serious and irreversible bodily injury or a serious and incurable illness. And that the person expresses their unequivocal, free and informed consent, and if they cannot do so, a representative can decide. “That has produced many emotions in me, the Court has allowed family members to decide in certain cases, I am overflowing with gratitude for having been a vehicle for so many people,” says Paola.
His social networks are full of messages of support, gratitude, they call him brave, even though he doesn't like it. He knows the outcome of this news, in fact she has known since she was told that he has ALS, but now he has another option. “I was thinking about some messages from many people that he wrote to me saying why don't I go to Colombia, where euthanasia is legal, and I thought: what a joy that now I don't have to flee my country. Today Ecuador welcomes me a little more.”
—I remember that the first time we met you said that this had to happen, that maybe it wouldn't happen with you, but it had to happen.
—Can you believe I managed to see it? When I started this, everyone told me that it was impossible, that the Court would take three years to resolve and you will not be able to see it. And I said well, it doesn't matter. It's like wh
en you plant a tree and everyone sits in the shade. I was able to see it and I am also sitting in the shadow of the tree that I planted and also many others that have more urgency and more hopelessness than me.
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