(MENAFN- The Rio Times) Uruguay's Senate has approved the Dignified Death law by 20–11 after a 64–29 vote in the lower house, making the country the first in Latin America to legalize euthanasia through Parliament. Regulations will follow before the law takes effect.

What the law does is straightforward and sweeping. A mentally competent adult who is terminally ill with an incurable, irreversible condition-or enduring unbearable suffering with a grave, progressive loss of quality of life-may request a doctor's help to end life.

The request must be written. Two independent physicians assess eligibility; if they disagree, a three-doctor board (including a psychiatrist and a specialist) decides. Patients must reconfirm before witnesses and can revoke consent at any time.

Conscientious objection is allowed for clinicians, but institutions must still ensure the service is provided. Afterward, the Health Ministry is notified and the death certificate records euthanasia as the final cause.

Politics cut across party lines: the left backed the bill, joined by a few centrists and one National Party senator, while most of the governing party and part of the center-right opposed.



Critics warned that the text's boundaries are too elastic and that the state should expand palliative care and accompaniment rather than authorize a lethal act.
Uruguay's euthanasia law tests ethics and influence in Latin America
The Catholic Church in Uruguay, reflecting mainstream Christian teaching, opposed the law and urged society to defend life from conception to natural death.

For Christians, the moral issue is unambiguous. Scripture's command“You shall not kill” and Jesus' reaffirmation of it make the intentional ending of innocent life a grave sin.

Medicine's calling is to cure when possible and to comfort always-not to kill. Allowing euthanasia risks turning suffering people-the elderly, disabled, isolated, or economically pressured-into candidates for death rather than subjects of care.

The story behind the story is cultural and regional. Uruguay, a secular-leaning outlier in a largely Christian continent, chose a legislative path that gives this policy democratic ownership and potential influence beyond its borders.

This move comes as many churches across Latin America report renewed evangelization and public witness. What happens next-how hospitals apply the rules, whether conscience rights hold, and if pain relief and hospice actually expand-will be crucial.

It will determine whether Uruguay's step becomes a narrow, tightly controlled exception or a door that redefines the duties of doctors and the meaning of dignity.

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