The Chamber of Senators of Uruguay approved on Wednesday, October 15, the dignified death bill that opens the doors to euthanasia in the country.
After a favorable vote by 20 senators – out of 31 attendees – the bill, which had previously been approved in August by Uruguayan deputies, will go to the office of President Yamandú Orsi, a member of the Frente Amplio, a political group that promoted the legislative initiative.
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Orsi has among his powers to promulgate the law or veto it partially or totally.
The norm approved by the Senate would allow any person over 18 years of age in Uruguay, and who “suffers from one or more chronic, incurable and irreversible pathologies or health conditions that seriously impair their quality of life, causing suffering that is unbearable”, to have access to euthanasia.
With this result, Uruguay would become the first country in South America to legalize euthanasia through a legislative process. Countries like Colombia and Ecuador opened the doors to this practice through judicial mechanisms.
A law that “fosters the ‘culture of death’”
In a statement released After the Senate vote, the Episcopal Conference of Uruguay noted that “this law promotes the ‘culture of death’.”
“In a country with a high suicide rate, with serious difficulties in addressing the issue of mental health, this law goes against the value and dignity of human life and puts us on a risky path of naturalizing the search for death as a solution to life situations that can be faced in another way,” expressed the Uruguayan bishops.
Returning to a message spread in June of this year, the bishops assured that “each human life appears before us as something unique, unrepeatable and irreplaceable, its value is independent of its state of health, ethnicity, sex, culture, socio-economic situation, or any other circumstance.”
“Dying with dignity means dying without pain or other poorly controlled symptoms; dying at your natural time, without life being unnecessarily shortened or prolonged; dying surrounded by the love of family and friends; dying with the possibility of having been adequately informed, choosing, if possible, the place (hospital or home) and participating in all the important decisions that affect you; dying with the spiritual help you need,” they added.
The prelates pointed out that “as a Church that is pilgrim in Uruguay we want to continue working in favor of the care of life and its dignity, as is also recognized by our Constitution and by the signing of several international treaties by our country.”
“We are convinced that sharing the human moments of greatest weakness can be transformed into a great opportunity to find together the transcendent and profound meaning of our lives,” they concluded.
David Ramos
Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Privada del Norte in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working at ACI Prensa, I have been based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered Pope Francis’ trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.