Colombia just legalized euthanasia. Here's why that's a big deal

[Trillo]

LIMA, Peru — Should a doctor be allowed to take a patient’s life? Colombia just said yes.

Terminally ill adults there can now ask a physician to end their lives for them, after the South American country’s Health Ministry last week made that right legally binding.

This is momentous — and highly controversial. It makes Colombia only the fourth nation in the world to allow euthanasia.

Euthanasia is different from medically assisted suicide, which is legal in many places. In assisted death, a doctor prescribes life-ending medication, typically pills, but the patient is the one who takes it. Euthanasia is when a third party actually administers the fatal dose, usually by injection. That raises all kinds of ethical questions.

more... http://www.globalpost.com/article/6531675/2015/04/28/colombia-euthanasia

[Warpy]

1. I would hope there are ethics panels in place to make sure

death isn't being hurried along because greedy people want to grab an estate.

I have no problem with this. Every time I've seen a suffering animal put down I've wished someone would do the same for me when it's time.

I see absolutely no point in wringing all the suffering possible out of a life which has already ended as anything besides the experience of pain.

[Trillo]

2. Yes, there is a committee, there's another article which explains in more detail.

http://www.cronicadelquindio.com/noticia-completa-titulo-listo_protocolo_para_regular_la_eutanasia_en_colombia-seccion-la_nacin-nota-87321

This is from Google translate:

In an interview with Radio Blu, the health minister, Alejandro Gaviria, he said the person wishing to die with dignity must be terminally ill, whose status is defined by the treating physician.

In the event that the patient is in a permanent state of unconsciousness or in a vegetative state, this patient should express demonstrably and verifiable for the committee.

The procedure, once the patient demonstrated the witness where dying with dignity accepts euthanasia must be performed by the treating physician and guaranteed by the hospital, which also must perform the procedure for free.

He did not subject the process to minors or people who have some degenerative disease.

The committee
These committees, formed to analyze cases of requests to advocate for the right to die with dignity, will consist of a medical specialist in the pathology of the applicant, a lawyer to verify the application and a psychiatrist or psychologist to demonstrate the full consciousness of patient.

These specialists should be provided by the hospital who have ten days after the request of dignified death, to give a definitive answer depending on each case. Once approved by the committee of professionals, the hospital will have a term of 24 hours to appoint a non conscientious objector doctor to perform the medical procedure.

I find myself wondering if, under the Affordable Care Act, poorer people with terminal illnesses may travel there to end their suffering.