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(Reuters) — Víctor Escobar became the first person in Colombia with a non-terminal illness to die from legally regulated euthanasia on Friday night, confirmed his lawyer Luis Giraldo.
“We have reached the goal that patients like me, who are not terminal but degenerative, win this battle, a battle that opens the doors to other patients who come after me and who right now want a dignified death,” said Escobar, 60 years old, in a video message sent to the media by Giraldo.
On Saturday, a Colombian, a woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, also agreed to the procedure.
Escobar suffered from end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which greatly diminishes quality of life, as well as a number of other conditions, Giraldo told Reuters.
The procedure was carried out in a clinic in Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca.
“I’m not saying goodbye, just ‘see you later,'” Escobar said.
Escobar had fought for two years for his right to euthanasia in the face of opposition from doctors, clinics and courts, despite the Constitutional Court recognizing last year that the procedure should not be available only to the terminally ill.
The case of Martha Sepúlveda
On Saturday, Martha Sepúlveda underwent the procedure in the city of Medellín at noon; reported in a statement DescLAB, which supported his case.
Sepúlveda, who had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2018, had to agree to euthanasia on October 10 last year, but the procedure was stopped at the last minute.
The Constitutional Court of Colombia eliminated the penalties for euthanasia under certain circumstances in 1997 and ordered to regulate the procedure in 2014. The first person in Colombia with a terminal illness to die under those rules was in 2015.
As of October 15 last year, 178 terminally ill people had been legally euthanized in Colombia since 2015, according to Colombian legal rights group DescLAB.
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