Despite the tortuous path to get the right to a dignified deaththe Seventh Constitutional Court of Lima ordered this Friday the execution of a sentence that allows the Ministry of Health and Social Security of Health to prepare the euthanasia protocol isolated for activist Ana Estradewho suffers from a degenerative and incurable disease.

Euthanasia is not permitted in Peru, and anyone who helps another person to die who requests it can be sentenced to up to three years in prison. In the Estrada case, the Supreme Court ordered an exception

Judge refused to execute Ana Estrada’s euthanasia sentence: the slow path to a dignified death

Judge Silvia Nuñez Riva abstained “out of decorum” and disobeyed the Supreme Court’s decision. The Ombudsman pointed out that a judge is not empowered to rule on the merits of the dispute which has already been resolved

The decision comes after the refusal of Judge Silvia Nuñez Riva, of the Eleventh Constitutional Court of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima (in charge of the execution of the judgment), who issued a resolution the last week of January expressing her abstention “for decorum” and “because it is impossible to waive the right to life”.

The magistrate’s refusal meant disregard for the unprecedented decision of the Supreme Court, which in July 2022 ratified the right to a dignified death for Estrada, who since the age of 12 has suffered from poliomystosis, a disease that causes weakness. progressive muscle and forced himself to be completely bedridden for five years, compromising his respiratory muscles.

Euthanasia is not permitted in Peru, and anyone who helps another person to die who requests it can be sentenced to up to three years in prison. In the Estrada case, the Supreme Court ordered an exception so that Article 112 of the Penal Code, which prohibits assisted death, is “not applied”.

Colombia was the first country in Latin America to decriminalize euthanasia. Stock image. EFE/Martin Divisek/

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Current law allows a patient to refuse treatment under certain circumstances. Some legislators are now seeking to legalize a more “active” option which is, euphemisms aside, to allow suicide and homicide

The file was redistributed to the seventh Constitutional Court, in charge of the judge Malbina Saldanaand lawyers from the Office of the Ombudsman filed an amparo appeal which was quickly resolved.

A “judge is not empowered to rule on the merits of the dispute already resolved, which already has the character of res judicata; on the contrary, their duty is to ensure that it is fulfilled as resolved and without delaying its execution,” the agency said in a statement.

In this sense, he called the Judicial authority to execute “the provisions of the judgment as quickly and urgently as possible, given that the effective protection of the fundamental rights of Ana Estrade depends on the performance of certain acts by the defending entities.

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Illegal mining camps, such as La Pampa, would continue to operate, stocking up on fuel without issue.

This Friday, the Court ordered Minsa and EsSalud to “respect Ana Estrada’s decision to end her life through a technical euthanasia procedure, through the action of a physician to provide directly (orally or intravenous) a drug intended to end his life”, according to the document accessed by the portal LaLey.pe.

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