Peru’s court sets deadline for disconnecting respirator that keeps patient alive

After 12 doctors claimed conscientious objection and refused to turn off the respirator that keeps Peruvian Maria Teresa Benito Orihuela, 66, alive, the Peruvian court ruled that the country’s public health insurer has just over a week to Find a doctor who is willing to disconnect the equipment.

In February this year, the woman, who suffers from advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and depends on an external respirator, obtained a court sentence to have a “dignified death”. But the 12 doctors at the Edgardo Rebagliati Hospital, where the patient is hospitalized, have refused to turn off the devices, evoking the Religious Freedom Law and conscientious objection, a right that the category has not to carry out acts that violate their values. personal. Orihuela’s lawyers sued the Peruvian court again, this time to “force” compliance with the first decision. According to the decision of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima, Peru’s public health insurer, EsSalud, has until May 7 to present a doctor who agrees to turn off the devices.

Orihuela’s case follows the same pattern as that of Ana Estrada, who died on April 21st. Estrada also suffered from a degenerative disease and fought a legal battle in Peru to end his own life. Estrada’s case was considered the first of legal euthanasia in Peru and the Court’s decisions in the case – the first on February 23, 2021, later ratified by the Supreme Court on July 14 and 27, 2022. On that occasion, the Conference Peruvian Episcopal was concerned about the court’s decision. “Euthanasia will always be the wrong path, because it is an attack on the inalienable right to life,” he said in a statement. “The supreme purpose of the State is to care for, respect and promote life from its conception to its natural end; therefore, no authority can legitimately impose or permit this,” he added.

Other Latin American countries have also followed the same path. In February, Ecuador legalized the practice of euthanasia, when the Constitutional Court changed the legal framework for cases of people suffering from serious and incurable illnesses or irreversible injuries. In December, the National Assembly of Cuba, subservient to the Castro dictatorship, approved that euthanasias be authorized in the country, as part of the new Cuban Public Health Law. In Colombia, euthanasia has been legal since 1997, but it was only regulated in 2015, when hospitals began to perform assisted suicide in the country on terminally ill patients.

Infographics Gazeta do Povo[Clique para ampliar]