On Wednesday, Ecuador's high court legalized euthanasia and mandated lawmakers and health officials to draft rules and regulations for the procedure.
The Ecuadorian Constitutional Court rendered its ruling in response to a complaint filed by a terminally sick woman diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS, who had argued that she should be permitted to die with dignity.
Ecuador Legalizes Euthanasia
Ecuador is now the second country in Latin America after Colombia to decriminalize euthanasia.
Its constitutional court upheld the right of doctors to help a patient die by a majority of seven votes to two. The court declared that clinicians who enforce a patient's right to a dignified life will no longer be considered guilty of homicide.
Colombia was the first nation in Latin America to have decriminalized euthanasia, in which doctors use drugs to end the lives of terminally sick patients. Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and several states in Australia allow the practice, while Chile still debates the matter.
Several states in the US and other countries allow assisted suicide, in which patients take the lethal drug themselves, usually in the form of a drink that a doctor has prescribed.
"The Court considers that the issue raised relates to the rights to a life with dignity and the free development of personality," the ruling said. "Therefore, after examining, it concludes that life admits exceptions to its inviolability when it seeks to protect other rights."
Paola Roldán filed the lawsuit in Ecuador in August 2023, claiming that "those who suffer and have suffered serious or incurable diseases" have a right to a dignified death and should be allowed to "freely and voluntarily end their life" to put an end to "intense physical or emotional pain or suffering. "
In 2020, Roldán started to exhibit symptoms of ALS, a disease that weakens muscles and impairs physical functions. He told the reporters that it was an extraordinary moment for him and thanked the court for betting on solidarity, autonomy, freedom, and dignity.
The court granted legislators and officials till the end of the year to create the rules and regulations required to carry out the order under Wednesday's ruling.
However, the court also approved Roldán's plea for quick approval to end her life, provided that a doctor performs the procedure and that she expresses explicit, understandable, and informed consent herself or through a representative if she cannot say it.
The court also stipulated that she must endure excruciating pain brought on by either an incurable sickness or a grave, irreversible physical injury.
One of Roldán's attorneys, Farith Simon, informed reporters that the court granted his client's request and that anyone may use the ruling if specific requirements were followed.
Netherlands: First Country To Legalize Euthanasia Worldwide
The Netherlands was the first country to allow assisted suicide and euthanasia in April 2002. It imposed stringent requirements, including that the patient must be in "full consciousness" and that they must be experiencing excruciating pain and an incurable sickness.
Under medical supervision, a fatal cocktail was administered to 3,136 individuals in 2010.
According to the Royal Dutch Medical Association, 15,000 cases of so-called palliative sedation have occurred annually since 2005, making it a common practice in hospitals. Patients whose prognosis is two weeks or fewer are placed in a medically induced coma and denied access to any food or liquids.
The legislation has sparked a heated discussion on the "right to suicide" because assisted suicide that does not meet euthanasia standards is still prohibited and is treated as a homicide.
