Colombia: A woman with ALS will access the first euthanasia for a non-terminal patient | Martha Sepúlveda is 51 years old

A Colombian woman without terminal illness will accept euthanasia next Sunday. It is Martha Sepulveda, 51, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A 1997 law authorizes euthanasia in terminal cases in the country; and a decision of the Constitutional Court recently widened its scope. Thus, Sepúlveda He is the first person in Colombia without terminal illness to benefit from the legal protection of assisted dying.

“I am calmer since the procedure was authorized, I laugh more and I sleep more calmly,” the woman said. “The best thing that will happen to me is to rest,” he said. He assures us that the pains of the disease are very intense and he takes refuge in his Catholic faith.

“I am totally calm. I consider myself to be a very believer in God, but I repeat, God does not want to see me suffer and I do not believe anyone. What father wants to see his children suffer?

Sepúlveda had to overcome not only legal pitfalls, but also rejection from his own family. His eleven siblings and son opposed his decision. “A priori I need my mother, I want her with me, almost in any condition, but I know that in her words she no longer lives, she survives”, admitted Federico Redondo, 22 years old. his laughter and that his stay on earth is a little more pleasant “, he underlined about these last days.

Euthanasia in Colombia

The regulation of euthanasia in Colombia dates from 2015 and since then, there have been 157 procedures. It was last July that Colombian justice extended the field of euthanasia to people without terminal illness. On August 6, Sepúlveda had his request approved.

72 percent of Colombians support euthanasia, poll shows. The Church, critical of the 1997 decriminalization, reaffirmed its position when in the middle of this year the court ruled in favor of the extension to those who are not terminally ill.

Sepúlveda, who is a believer, chose to die on a Sunday. “As we always go to church on Sunday, to mass, I chose that day,” he said. The intervention will take place at 7 a.m. The woman requested that it be as soon as possible, so that she could be cremated and the ashes delivered to the family on the same Sunday.

The woman claims her fight against the disease: “I will be a coward, but I don’t want to suffer anymore. I am fighting to rest ”.