Uruguay’s Chamber of Deputies approves decriminalization of euthanasia

“The House of Representatives approved the euthanasia bill: 57 [votes in favor] out of 96,” the president of the House of Representatives and one of the promoters of the initiative, Ope Pasquet, posted on his Twitter account.

The deputy from the Colorado Party (center-right) highlighted in dialogue with Monte Carlo radio that the text, which now goes to the Senate, was approved with the support of legislators from different political parties.

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Pasquet stressed that it was “an adequate, conceptual debate with a philosophical background, without grievances and without unduly politicizing the issue.”

Regarding the initiative, he pointed out that it is a project “with profound humanitarian content that aims to contemplate the situation of people who suffer a lot for whom science does not give them a horizon” so that they have “the possibility that, if they freely want to anticipate their death to stop suffering, can do it.”

The approved text is the unification of two projects on the subject and, unlike the one originally presented by Pasquet in 2020, it did not contemplate assisted suicide.

Euthanasia is when a medical professional kills a sick person who has repeatedly asked him to stop suffering, while assisted suicide is the act by which a terminally ill person ends his own life, but a medical professional health gives you the tools to do it.

“The unification of both projects was not difficult because there was a clearly defined common objective, which was to enable euthanasia.”

“The reference to assisted suicide was eliminated because we warned that it could generate confusion on an issue in which clarity is essential,” Pasquet explained to Sputnik Agency in August.

According to the project, those who suffer from pathologies or chronic, incurable and irreversible health conditions, which seriously deteriorate their quality of life and cause them unbearable suffering, will be able to access euthanasia.

Doctors and other care team members who act following the law are exempt from all liability, according to the initiative.

If the project is approved in the Senate, Uruguay will become the second country in Latin America, after Colombia, to legalize the deliberate intervention to end a person’s life with no prospect of a cure (at the express and reiterated request of this).

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