Colombia Public Doctors Must Now Provide Euthanasia by Law

June 11, 2015

(Pan Am Post) – A new ruling by Colombia’s Constitutional Court means that public health institutions, and all the doctors who work in them, will be unable to refuse a patient’s request for assisted suicide — forcing them to carry out the procedure, or transfer the patient to an institution that will. Medical euthanasia has long been a grey area in Colombia, even after decriminalization in 1997. The decision to end the life of a patient asking for the procedure has hitherto rested on the doctor’s personal preference.