Montevideo’s Senate has passed a new law allowing ‘death with dignity’ (but not assisted suicide), with the procedure permitted even just a few days after the request.
- Uruguay Senate greenlights law decriminalizing euthanasia: government to set timing and procedures.
- Adults suffering from incurable illnesses that cause unbearable physical or psychological pain will be able to access “death with dignity”.
- Montevideo’s Parliament is the first in Latin America to address the issue through legislation: in Colombia and Ecuador, the matter was handled by the courts.
Uruguay’s Senate has approved a law decriminalizing euthanasia, making the country the first in Latin America to legalize it through legislative action. The law allows incurably ill patients experiencing unbearable suffering to request medically assisted death. The legislation on what Montevideo’s Parliament calls muerte digna (“death with dignity”) authorizes medical intervention to end the lives of adults affected by incurable diseases that cause intolerable physical or psychological suffering. The text, however, excludes assisted suicide and establishes informed-consent procedures, including written requests and multiple medical assessments before the administration of a lethal injection.
Latin America and the euthanasia debate
According to the approved text, patients may receive the lethal injection within a few days of submitting the request, through a process that allows authorization in very short timeframes following two medical opinions. The measure passed thanks to the support of left-wing senators from the Frente Amplio and favorable votes from representatives of other parties. As expected, the parliamentary debate was intense and reactions within Uruguayan society were mixed: the Catholic Church and some conservative groups voiced strong opposition, while civil rights activists and part of the medical community welcomed the law as a step forward in respecting individual autonomy. With this law, Uruguay strengthens its reputation as a progressive country in Latin America, after years in which it had already regulated issues such as abortion, marriage equality, and soft drugs. The legislative decriminalization of euthanasia marks a difference from countries like Colombia and Ecuador, where similar practices had been recognized through judicial rulings rather than by Parliament.
The approval now opens the implementation phase: the government will be responsible for defining the implementing regulations, clinical safeguards, and protocols to ensure that access complies with the health and legal criteria established by the law. International and domestic observers will be monitoring the practical application of the legislation in the coming months.
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