2023-07-10 07:05:00
“A free life, a dignified death” is the name of the posthumous article by Carlos Alberto Montaner, in which he says goodbye to his readers, shares his last months of life with the limitations imposed by his illness, recounts his move to Spain to take advantage of the assisted suicide with the support of public health in that country. It is a plea in favor of euthanasia when it is voluntary and informed.
Do you want greater freedom than choosing the moment of departure? Montaner asks, and the answer is undoubtedly yes.
Autonomy and personal freedom are not only expressed in deciding how to live, that freedom and autonomy must also allow us to decide when to end our lives when suffering from an incurable and disabling disease; when facing prolonged, painful agony; a life with intense suffering or emptied of all dignity, in a life that is more like a punishment, an intolerable burden for those who only wait for their death to come.
Defending the right to decide to die is based on respect for human dignity, autonomy and a freedom that allows us to decide how to live our last days and how we face our death. It is a right that requires, in addition to being able to decide, having adequate advice, with legal means to express the will and that this be respected when it can no longer be manifested, with adequate palliative care and receive professional assistance to put an end to the life.
Receiving information, advice and accompaniment to make that decision is essential, only if the decision is free and informed is euthanasia acceptable.
It is time for our country to guarantee the possibility of deciding when to die, a legal system that respects the Constitution should contemplate this possibility, that is to take seriously the rights of human beings as autonomous and free, with the right to have a dignified life and freedom in all its dimensions, something that in the current context seems like a chimera.
#die #Comercio