Paola Roldán, a 42-year-old woman who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), managed to legalize euthanasia in Ecuador with the historic ruling issued this Wednesday by the Constitutional Court, which ruled in favor of her demand and recognized her right to have access to a dignified death.
In its ruling, Ecuador’s highest court of guarantees did not admit the unconstitutionality of article 144 of Ecuador’s penal code, which punishes “a person who kills another” with sentences of between ten and thirteen years in prison, as Roldán demands, and approved its “conditional constitutionality.”
Under this formula, with seven votes in favor of its nine magistrates, the Court determined that said article will be constitutional whenever a doctor agrees to a patient’s request for active euthanasia in a free, informed and unequivocal manner, due to a condition of intense suffering resulting from serious and irreversible bodily injury or serious and incurable illness.
The court’s ruling also declared the “additive constitutionality” of article 6 of the Code of Medical Ethics, so that it empowers a doctor to carry out the euthanasia procedure within the conditions contemplated by the same Court so that he is not punished for homicide.
In that sense, it declared unconstitutional article 90 of the Code of Medical Ethics, which is now outside the legal system of Ecuador and which stated that “the doctor is not authorized to shorten the life of the patient” and that “his fundamental mission in the face of a incurable disease will be alleviated through the therapeutic resources of the case.
Bill and regulation
So that Paola Roldán can access euthanasia, the Constitutional Court ordered that a law be prepared to regulate the procedure, which will be in charge of the Ombudsman’s Office and the National Assembly (Parliament), while the Ministry of Public Health You will have to draw up a regulation.
The Ombudsman’s Office will have a maximum of six months to prepare the bill, and the Ministry must make the regulations in a maximum of two months, while the Assembly will have one year from the presentation of the legislative initiative to debate and issue the regulatory body.
“I have lived a full life and I know that the only thing I deserve is a death with dignity,” explained Roldán during the hearing of his case, held on November 20, 2023, where he appeared via videoconference from his bed, in which She was assisted by artificial respiration and cared for at all times by her husband.
Six months of waiting
The ruling came almost six months after Roldán presented the lawsuit before the Constitutional Court, where a group of lawyers opposed to abortion and euthanasia presented a challenge against two of the court’s judges that was unsuccessful.
After that episode, last week Roldán urged the Court to issue a resolution on his case.
“Several times I thought that I would not be able to see the fruits of this demand, like someone who plants a tree so that someone else can sit under its shadow,” Roldán wrote on social networks.
“But I have survived and now I want to see if the blood of justice and humanity runs through the veins of this country, or if we continue in the retrograde thinking that exalts suffering,” he added.
More than three years with diagnosed ALS
With 95% disability due to ALS, which he was diagnosed with three years ago, Roldán “can only move the muscles of his face and his eyes. His brain works absolutely perfectly, but he does not have any mobility in any part of his body,” Ramiro Ávila, one of his three lawyers, explained to EFE last November.
One day in August 2020, Paola was doing yoga when one of her arms collapsed and fell to the ground; She then had difficulty handling her hand and taking objects as routine for a mother as her baby’s bottle.
Afterwards he walked with difficulty and the doctors in Ecuador talked to him about excessive activity, exercise and stress. In the United States he was diagnosed with ALS.
Paola has bought 40 gifts to give, year after year, to her son on subsequent birthdays and at special moments in his life, such as when he gets his driver’s license, or when he has a spiritual moment. EFE
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