Cuba passed a law that grants terminally ill patients the right to a dignified death
Internet
Published at: 26/12/2023 09:05 PM
The National Assembly of Cuba approved a new Health Law, which, according to the deputies, is a modern and comprehensive legislation and one of the issues that has attracted the most attention, which is to offer terminally ill patients the possibility of deciding on their treatments and the way in which they want to die, reported the Russian Today website.
He says that citizen Rolando Fong and his wife have lost several loved ones in recent years. Time goes by, but not the pain. Among the most difficult things to deal with in these cases, he said.
He added that “it's seeing the deterioration and suffering that torment the sick person. A memory that remains fresh in his memory with the recent death of a family member. The deterioration she began to suffer, mental deterioration and physical deterioration, and she herself asked to be let to die.”
The new Health Law, approved last Friday, the 22nd, by the Cuban Parliament, opens the door for people to say how they want to die. During the debate, heartfelt words were heard from doctors who serve as deputies.
“It's perfectible, because it's a law made by human beings at a given time and context, but it's wonderful to read about news that reinforce the concept of health and the rights of our patients, their families and our workers,” said the deputy and doctor Taymí Martínez Naranjo.
The law avoids using the term euthanasia. Parliamentarians say they adopted more modern concepts.
Professor Leonardo Pérez Gallardo, one of the most recognized jurists in the country, author, among others, of the current Constitution and the new Family Code, stated that “if we use the term euthanasia, you are limited to the fact that the determination of the end of life is a strictly euthanasic procedure, that is, a procedure that seeks the death of a person.”
“The person may not be looking for an early death, maybe the person is looking for palliative care,” he added.
The law recognizes “the right to a dignified death”
The key word is self-determination and not only about how and when to die, but there is also the possibility of deciding on treatments or how to spend the last moments of life in the face of an agonizing situation and an irremediable end.
But beyond the use or not of the word euthanasia, there is a concept that is fundamental to the law: the right to a dignified death. “The Public Health Act has simply recognized, for the first time, the right to a dignified death, the right to determine the guidelines through which the person wants what the dying process will be like,” said Leonardo Pérez Gallardo.
The road is not over, there are still no rules and procedures to regulate what is established. Texts that will have to return to the National Assembly to be approved by Cuban deputies. However, the law has already been approved, and with it the right claimed by many Cubans a long time ago so that pain and suffering are not an imposition.
Mazo News Team