Uruguay: Deputies approved euthanasia and will pass to the Senate

The Chamber of Deputies of Uruguay approved on Tuesday the bill that seeks to allow euthanasia in the country, and the legislative proposal will now pass to the Senate. If also approved there, Uruguay could become the third country in the region to legalize this practice.

After a long session in the House of Representatives, the bill presented by the Frente Amplio, which provides that any person over 18 “suffering from one or more chronic health, incurable and irreversible health conditions that seriously undermine their quality of life, causing sufferings that are unbearable” may request assisted death, received 64 votes in favor and 29 against.

Among the votes in favor are those of almost the entire official bloc, and also deputies of the opposition.

The project, presented at the beginning of this year, was approved in July by the Health Commission of the Lower House, and received on Tuesday the end of the Plenary of the Chamber of Deputies. Now he looks for approval in the upper house.

In the case of receiving most positive votes, Uruguay would be located as the third country in Latin America in allowing euthanasia, in addition to Colombia and Ecuador.

The Catholic Church in Uruguay spoke on numerous opportunities against the project. In recent days, the bishops of the Uruguayan Episcopal Conference (CEU) published A video store expressing a “firm not” to the bill.

Among their arguments, they recalled that “the dignity of each person is an absolute, inalienable gift, that is never lost,” and stressed that “for God, every life is infinitely loved and worthy of all our care.”

“Our society must host, protect and accompany each person until the end of their earthly life,” they said, underlining the urgency of “implementing the Palliative Care Law so that no Uruguayan suffers unnecessarily.”

In that sense, the bishops expressed a “firm not to euthanasia”; since “causing the death of a patient is ethically unacceptable.”