Peruvian court gives 15-day deadline for patient’s ‘dignified death’ after doctors refuse to turn off respirator

The Peruvian court set a 15-day deadline for the country’s public health insurer to turn off the devices that are keeping patient Maria Teresa Benito Orihuela alive. The legal measure came after doctors refused to carry out a sentence handed down on February 1, which accepted Orihuela’s wish for a “dignified death”. At 65, she suffers from advanced-stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and uses a respirator. The information is from the newspaper La República.

The Superior Court of Justice of Lima established a deadline until May 7th for the country’s public health insurer to turn off the devices that keep Maria Teresa Benito Orihuela alive.

All 12 doctors at the Edgardo Rebagliati hospital refused to grant the patient’s request for a “dignified death”, citing “conscientious objection”.

The content of the doctors’ letters, which detail the reasons for the refusal, caught the court’s attention. “They were all practically the same, as if they had been written by a single person and only the signature was different,” a judicial source told the Peruvian newspaper.

The patient’s lawyer has also requested that a private doctor be authorized to disconnect Benito’s devices.

Source: Redação Terra