Monday, March 23, 2015

Chilean girl who asked for euthanasia, changes her mind.

Alex Schadenberg
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Valentina Maureira
A 14-year-old Chilean girl, who asked the Chilean President, to allow her to die by euthanasia, has now changed her mind and wants to live.

Valentina Maureira, who lives with Cystic Fibrosis, created a youtube video last month asking the Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet, to allow her to die by euthanasia. Valentina got the idea from the Brittany Maynard assisted suicide campaign.

On February 28 President Bachelet met with Valentina. Presidential spokesman Alvaro Elizalde stated that 'it's impossible not to be overcome by emotion with the girl's request, it's impossible to grant her wish,' because it's not allowed under Chilean law.

Valentina has changed her mind after meeting with a family from Argentina.

Maribel Oviedo
Valentina's father said that his daughter was moved by a visit from a Argentina family, whose children also have Cystic Fibrosis.

He said Valentina was given hope by meeting someone who had survived beyond age 20 with the disease.

Maribel Oviedo and her father Ernesto traveled to Santiago to 'convey a message of hope.'

Maribel, 22, watched her sister Marisol die of cystic fibrosis in 2013. Mirabel received a lung transplant in 2012 and told Valentina that she now lives a normal life.

Mirabel offered to go to a doctor's appointment with her because she wanted to encourage her to live.

Valentina's story is emotionally charged. If Valentina had died by euthanasia, her options, potential treatment and opportunity to change her mind would have ended.

Now Valentina has hope.
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1 comment:

  1. Pat GoltzMarch 30, 2015 at 12:37 AM

    Committing euthanasia is a vote for the idea that we will not come up with a treatment or cure that will let a person live a pretty much normal life. I don't think that is a very good bet at all. We have stem cells for one thing, and there will be other treatments. How about a new lung grown on a matrix with a 3-D printer? Or it could be some natural substance that proves to be very helpful, that medical science won't recognize, but which will be available to the diligent. Sure, people don't want to endure suffering, but I would be willing to bet I'd find an answer, and in fact, I have a couple of health conditions where that's exactly how I feel. They're not as troublesome, but I don't think that is the major issue anyway. Hope is.

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