Bill to regulate euthanasia in Colombia is filed: De la Calle and Losada push for new attempt

In an important step towards the protection of individual rights and the dignity of life, Senator Humberto de la Calle presented the draft bill that regulates euthanasia in Colombia.

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The author of the proposal, House Representative for Bogotá Juan Carlos Losada, celebrated the fact that Senator de la Calle was the rapporteur of the bill, who also signed the bill as co-author and made important contributions to the text of the proposal.

According to the congressmen, this proposal seeks to guarantee real access to the right to a dignified death in a country where euthanasia is still one of the most controversial issues in Colombian politics, permeated by ethical and moral opinions.

This bill focuses on the concept of “medically assisted dignified death”. If approved by the Colombian parliament, the proposal would become a law that would allow Colombians access to the fundamental right to die with dignity.

In addition, it would eliminate the barriers that currently exist to achieve the procedure, despite the guidelines of the Constitutional Court.

In the words of Senator de la Calle, “this project picks up a historical debt of a Congress that has not fulfilled its duty, despite even the statements of the Constitutional Court”, said the parliamentarian after filing the proposal in the First Commission of the Senate.

The historical debt refers to the fact that at least 14 bills have been presented in the Congress of the Republic to regulate euthanasia in the country, since 1998. However, the Colombian parliament has not issued any law to regulate the right to assisted death.

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Both authors emphasize that the objective is for the bill to be discussed in the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Republic in order to be submitted to a vote as soon as possible.

Acabo de radicar la ponencia del Proyecto que regula la muerte digna médicamente asistida (Eutanasia). Protegermos el derecho a elegir y a juzgar buscando eliminar las barreras de acceso. Junto a @JuanKarloslos trabajaremos para impulsar la dignificación de la vida en Colombia. pic.twitter.com/xPewXgddWZ

— Humberto de la Calle (@DeLaCalleHum) August 24, 2023

According to Senator Humberto de la Calle, the bill seeks to protect “the right to choose and to judge, seeking to eliminate the barriers to access” to euthanasia, or medically assisted dignified death.

For his part, Representative Juan Carlos Losada was enthusiastic about the filing of the bill in the hands of Senator de la Calle.

“This is a bill that will guarantee real access to the right to a dignified death, which is a right that has three modalities and the only one that is not regulated is medically assisted death or euthanasia”, said Representative Losada.

Colombia was the first country to decriminalize euthanasia in Latin America, but there are still lags in its regulation.

In Colombia, euthanasia was decriminalized with Ruling C-239 of 1997 by the Constitutional Court.

From that moment on, said judicial entity issued eleven sentences authorizing this medical procedure, which led the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to issue Resolution 1216 of 2015, on April 20 of that year:

“Whereby compliance is given to the order of the fourth sentence T.970 of 2014 of the Honorable Constitutional Court in relation to the guidelines for the organization and operation of the committees to give effect to the right to die with dignity”.

However, in legal matters, euthanasia is still in a gray area, despite the fact that another sentence, C-233 of 2021 of the Constitutional Court, states that euthanasia cannot be considered a crime when the procedure is “performed by a physician, the free and informed consent, prior or subsequent to the diagnosis, of the passive subject, that the patient suffers intense physical or psychological suffering, arising from bodily injury or serious and incurable disease”.

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