Euthanasia bill in Colombia also includes minors

A new project to legalize euthanasia will be debated in the coming days by the Colombian House of Representatives, which proposes applying this practice also to minors and people with non-terminal illnesses, warned one of the parliamentarians of the Pro-Life Caucus.

The parliamentarian of the Conservative Party, Luis Miguel López Aristizábal, referred to the statutory bill 0006 of 2025presented by representative Juan Carlos Losada of the Liberal Party. The text was approved on September 30 in the First Committee of the Chamber and in the coming days it should be debated by the plenary session.

The Constitutional Court of Colombia decriminalized euthanasia in 1997 and since then, despite pressure from the Court, Congress has ruled out seventeen projects to legalize it. The most recent occurred on March 26, when the House of Representatives filed a text also presented by Juan Carlos Losada.

Therefore, given the new attempt to legalize this practice, representative López Aristizábal asked on his social networks if Colombia wants to have “a health system that accompanies life or that promotes death.”

In a note shared with ACI Prensa, the member of the Pro-Life Caucus said that this bill “constitutes a perverse incentive for the health system to continue failing to guarantee patients the palliative care services they deserve.”

“Today, of every ten patients who require them, only three receive effective care, an alarming figure that reflects an unacceptable abandonment of the State’s duty to protect life and human dignity,” he indicated. “It is not about shortening life, but about accompanying and caring for those who are going through serious illnesses.”

Likewise, he warned that the text “is not limited to terminal cases: it raises the possibility of applying a lethal injection to people with non-terminal illnesses and even children. This represents a very serious setback in the protection of fundamental rights and life.”

Details of the euthanasia bill

Bill 0006 of 2025 proposes that euthanasia can be applied to adults diagnosed with serious and incurable diseases or injuries, but it will not be necessary or required to “prove the existence of a terminal illness or a medical prognosis of imminent death.”

It may also be applied to those who consider that they experience “physical or psychological suffering incompatible with their notion of a dignified life.”

The text requires that the person express verbally or in writing their consent to receive euthanasia, but indicates that in case “they are in a vegetative state or are unable to express their will”, the practice may be requested by “people within the two degrees of consanguinity and the spouse or permanent partner” with a “substitute consent.”

According to legislator Losada, due to their proximity, they can “carry out the best interpretation of the person’s will and preferences to authorize medical interventions,” such as the administration of assisted suicide.

The figure of substitute consent is also proposed for people with disabilities “who have not developed autonomy throughout their lives, due to conditions that have permanently limited their capacity for self-determination.”

Article 38 of the bill also proposes euthanasia for minors from zero years of age.

“Boys and girls between zero (0) and twelve (12) years old may exercise their right to die with dignity through the adaptation or suspension of therapeutic effort or through access to palliative care,” the article indicates.

For those between twelve and eighteen years old, it establishes that they may access “medically assisted death in the terms provided for in this law and in the rules that regulate it, as long as their consent and the consent of those who exercise legal representation are present.”

Regarding conscientious objection, the project only allows it on an individual basis, but not institutionally, so when a health professional expresses his opposition to practicing assisted suicide, he must be replaced by another who is willing to carry it out.

In addition, it orders public and private higher education institutions to “guarantee that students of programs related to health sciences (…), receive adequate training on the fundamental right to a dignified death.”

If approved by the plenary session of the House of Representatives, the bill will be sent to the Senate, where it must be debated by the First Committee. The maximum deadline for its four discussions expires in June 2026.