This Saturday, a day before Martha Sepúlveda underwent the euthanasia procedure, the Colombian Institute of Pain (Incodol) reported that after a review with a scientific committee, the process was canceled.
“According to a meeting in which the request of Mrs. Martha Liria Sepúlveda was reviewed and analyzed again in a sufficient and ample manner, it concluded unanimously to cancel the procedure to die with dignity through euthanasia, scheduled for October 10, 2021 ″, the IPS said in a statement.
They explain that the decision was based on numeral 26.6 of article 26 of Resolution 971 of 2021 of the Ministry of Health, which assigns the Committee within its functions to review the application process and the complete euthanasia procedure, in order to detect any situation that affects its development.
“That is why, by having an updated concept of the patient’s health and evolution, it is defined that the termination criterion is not met, as had been considered in the first committee”Incodol explains.
Sepulveda, she is a 51-year-old woman who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis which, among many other consequences and indescribable pain, has deprived her of the ability to walk and move on her own. For this reason, he went to the Colombian justice in search of having a dignified and prompt death.
Martha Sepulveda was already ready to die
It was last July 22, when The Constitutional Court confirmed that by law the coverage of the fundamental right to die with dignity was extended to non-terminal patientsIt is essential to highlight that previously this procedure was only enabled for people who had terminal illnesses in an advanced stage.
It was known that authorizing euthanasia is a rather complex process, but finally Martha Sepúlveda’s EPS allowed her to be the first person in the country without a terminal illness to choose the day of her death.
“I am calmer since I received authorization for euthanasia, I laugh more and sleep better (…) I am a lucky woman”, He had stated in an interview for Noticias Caracol.
Against this woman’s decision to die with dignity, she contrasts the opinion of her religious community, since it dictates in its principles that only God is the owner of life and, for that reason, is that despite having been a Catholic person throughout his life, he will not be able to receive the holy oils.
However, nothing seems to cloud the joy with which Martha faces a process that, for many, would be unimaginable, that is why she has dedicated herself in recent days to share with her family, to enjoy good food and drink, as well as to finalize details. in everything that you want to leave organized in your last days of life.
“If it is from the spiritual plane, I am totally calm. I am a Catholic person, I consider myself a very believer in God, but, I repeat, God does not want to see me suffer and I believe that no one. No parent wants to see their children suffer “added the woman in her statement for said media.
When asked about her mother, since she is still living, she warns that it has been the most difficult thing in the whole process, since it has been difficult for her to understand that her daughter decided to die when she found no reason to continue living with unbearable pain in everything her body.
However, the one who has known how to take it very well is his son, Federico Redondo, 22, because despite admitting that it will be difficult to stop sharing with the woman who gave him life, he warns that it has been much harder to see her suffer due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis without being able to have an effective medical treatment.
“I saw it as the greatest act of love that I have ever done in my life, because a priori I need my mother, I want her with me, almost in any condition, but I know that in her words she no longer lives, she survives. Now I am focused on making her happy, on making her laugh, on picking up a bit and making her stay on Earth, whatever she has left, be a little more enjoyable “concluded the young man, a lawyer in training.
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