'Death with dignity': Peruvian woman sues to end her life
FEBRUARY 9, 2020 / 12:46 PM / 2 DAYS AGO
3 MIN READ
LIMA (Reuters) - After spending months in a hospital’s intensive care unit four years ago to treat her incurable and debilitating illness, Ana Estrada decided that at some point she would want to die before it got worse.
Estrada, 43, is bed-ridden with a condition that has atrophied her muscles since puberty. She does not want to commit suicide and her body is already very weak.
But under Peruvian law it would be a crime to help her die. Both assisted suicide and the act of killing a terminally-ill patient, called “compassionate murder,” are punished with prison time.
Now Estrada is suing the state, hoping a judge will let her die, what she calls “death with dignity.”
“I contemplated doing it illegally,” Estrada told Reuters on Friday from her bed, where she was helped by a nurse.
“But there was risk ... because I cannot let someone help me die. I cannot ask a relative to commit a crime.”
More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peru-euthanasia/death-with-dignity-peruvian-woman-sues-to-end-her-life-idUSKBN2030OH?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29&&rpc=401
