Bad news in Slovenia and Uruguay.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I have bad news. Slovenia has legalized assisted suicide and Uruguay's lower house passed a euthanasia bill.

Slovenia

Roselyne Min reported for Euronews on August 13 that Slovenia became the first Eastern European country to legalize assisted suicide. Min wrote:

In Slovenia, eligible patients will have access to assisted suicide, where they would have to ingest or inject a substance themselves, local media reported.

Patients will be required to express their intention to their doctor twice before submitting a formal request, which must be approved by an independent doctor. Their ability to make a decision will also be assessed by a psychiatrist.

Min reported that a group called Coalition Against the Poisoning of Patients has already collected 15,000 signatures and needs to collect 40,000 signatures in a little more than a month to launch a binding referendum on whether to repeal the law.

In June 2024, I reported that the Slovenian people passed a non-binding referendum (55% to 45%) based on the concept of assisted suicide. The next referendum will be based on the language of the legislation.

Min reported that Dr Bojana Beovic, president of the Medical Chamber of Slovenia stated:

“Their life is coming to an end, they are elderly, they do not feel they are useful in society, and the best thing is that they leave this world and their family members,” she said.

It sounds like Beovic believes that certain people are better off dead.

Uruguay

The Uruguay media reported on August 13 that Uruguay's Lower House passed the euthanasia bill with 64 of the 93 members present supporting the bill.

The euthanasia bill requires two doctors to approve the euthanasia death, but when one of the doctors disagrees, the decision would be reviewed by a medical board.

The Uruguay Upper House has not voted on the bill yet.

All of these countries should look to the Canadian experience before considering the legalization of euthanasia or assisted suicide. Once legal, the law will inevitably expand, as has happened in Canada and in almost every state in the US that has legalized assisted suicide.

• More articles about Slovenia assisted suicide debate (Link).
• More articles about Uruguay's euthanasia debate (Link).

Uruguay is debating euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The MercoPress reported on January 7, 2025 that Uruguay's future President Yamandú Orsi, the leader of the Broad Front party, who is taking office on March 1, 2025 supports the passing of a euthanasia bill.

Congressman-elect Federico Preve intends to introduce a bill that is similar to a previous euthanasia bill. The MercoPress reported:

According to Preve, the plan is to introduce a new bill that is as similar as possible to the previous one, in a move to speed up its approval. “I have great expectations that by the end of the year, or next year at the latest, Uruguay will have decriminalized euthanasia,” Preve stressed while recalling that Colorado Ope Pasquet's bill “did not even” get a “yes or no” after failing to make it through the Senate's Health Committee. In Preve's view, legal euthanasia is a much-needed alternative and “a right for many people who are in quite complicated situations.”

Federico Preve

A bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide was introduced in the Uruguayan Congress on March 11, 2020. My assessment of that Uruguay bill was that it lacked definition allowing it to be widely interpreted.

The MercoPress article focused on the philosophical support that many of Uruguay's political leaders have for euthanasia. Uruguay needs to move from their philosophical understanding of euthanasia to the reality of legalizing euthanasia.

Euthanasia may seem philosophically plausible but in every jurisdiction where it has been legalized euthanasia has expanded and in most jurisdictions it has grown out of control.

In Canada, the number of euthanasia deaths has massively expanded and the reasons for killing has expanded. What begins as a philosophical idea becomes a practical tragedy.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition opposes killing people.

Uruguayan Senate pressured to debate euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Uruguay Parliament

The Prensa Latina reported on June 21 that the euthanasia lobby is pressuring the Uruguay Senate to debate euthanasia. According to the report:

The shelving of a bill on euthanasia in the Uruguayan Senate has raised complaints from organizations that defend the right to assisted death.

This was a reaction to the delayed debate of a proposed law that the ruling National Party’s bench decided to postpone.

The legislative project is being studied by the Senate Commission, which has not met for two months.

The euthanasia lobby has complained that the National Party has prevented debate on a draft bill in the Senate.

The Uruguayan government needs to consider how legalizing euthanasia has negatively affected the rights of people with disabilities, the homeless and people living in poverty in Canada.

Uruguay Health Committee approves euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Uruguay

The Uruguay Lower House Health Committee passed a euthanasia bill on September 6. The bill still needs to be debated and voted-on by the whole Lower House. According to a Mercopress report:

The Health Committee of Uruguay's Lower House has passed a bill approving euthanasia. The body is now to debate the issue in a plenary session, probably next month, it was reported in Montevideo.

The article suggests that the bill is restrictive but the language in the article indicates that the bill is actually very loose. The Mercopress articles states:

“Any person of legal age, psychically fit, who suffers from one or more chronic, incurable and irreversible pathologies or health conditions that seriously undermine their quality of life, causing them unbearable suffering, has the right to be euthanized at their request and through the procedure established in the present law, so that their death takes place in a painless, peaceful and respectful way to their dignity”

The phrase "suffers from one or more chronic, incurable and irreversible pathologies or health conditions that seriously undermine their quality of life" will specifically permit euthanasia for people with disabilities or other chronic conditions. This law seems to be based on a eugenic philosophy that some lives are not worth living.

The article also states that the person must be approved by two doctors and it requires a three day waiting period. 

It is interesting that the article states that if the second doctor rejects the euthanasia request that a third doctor could be consulted, but if the third doctor also rejects the euthanasia request then the euthanasia will not happen.

Uruguay needs to study the experience with euthanasia in Canada and then reject it. Canada's has quickly become the most permissive euthanasia regime in the world.

Uruguay bill would legalize wide open euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg

Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide was introduced on March 11 in the Uruguayan Congress. The Uruguay bill lacks definition allowing it to be have a wide interpretation.

My commentary of the bill is based on a google translation of the text of the bill.

Article one of the bill provides legal protection for doctors who are willing to cause the death or assist the suicide of:

“a person of legal age, psychologically fit, ill with a terminal pathology, irreversible and incurable or afflicted by unbearable suffering, kills you or helps you kill yourself.”

It is clear that the bill legalizes euthanasia and assisted suicide because it states that the doctor will kill you or help you kill yourself makes.

Euthanasia is an intentional act to kill a person, upon request, who is disabled, sick or suffering. In most countries, euthanasia is prohibited by homicide or murder laws.

Assisted suicide is to intentionally provide the means for another person to kill oneself.

The Uruguay bill allows for a wider interpretation because it does not define the terms terminal pathology or unbearable suffering. 

The bill does not require a person to try effective treatments. There are many terminal conditions, where the person, with treatment may have years to live.  The term unbearable suffering is subjective. Some people find their condition to be unbearable but once they have received pain or symptom management, they change their mind. If terms are not defined or subjective, the doctors who participate in euthanasia will interpret the meaning of these terms over time.

Article two of the bill requires a second doctor to examine and confirm the medical diagnosis of the person requesting death.

Article three of the bill requires the primary doctor to confirm that the person requesting death is competent, free from coercion, has a continuous desire to die, and knows about alternatives. This article requires a second interview be done at least 30 days after the first request. The bill allows someone else to sign for the person requesting death. Allowing another person to sign-off is inappropriate and dangerous.

Article four of the bill requires the formal request for death to be made 3 days after the second interview. Once again, the bill allows someone else to sign. The bill also allows one of the witnesses to be a beneficiary. In most jurisdictions, a beneficiary is unable sign a will. This issue deals with life and death, rather than property and finances.

Article five of the bill states that the request is revocable.

Article six of the bill requires that the doctor who prescribes the lethal drugs (assisted suicide) must assure that the drugs are only used by the person who they are prescribed for. If the prescribing doctor is not present at the time of death, how will the prescribing physician assure that this happens?

Article seven of the bill requires the doctor who does the act or prescribes the lethal drugs to report the death to the Commission on Bioethics and Integral Quality of Health Care of the Ministry of Public Health, whether the doctor was present at the death or not.

This bill provides the physician with the: power to decide if the person should die, legal protection to cause the death, and then legal oversight to self-report the death to the authorities. Self-reporting systems provide the perfect legal cover since the only person who would know if the law was broken is the person who is dead.

Comments: The bill does not define the key terms, therefore the Uruguay euthanasia and assisted suicide bill can be interpreted in wide manner. For instance, most US states define terminal illness with a six month prognosis. 

The bill does not require a person to at least try effective treatments. There are many medical conditions that, if untreated, become terminal. Unbearable suffering is a subjective term. A person may be depressed or experiencing suicidal ideation and decide that their health condition is unbearable in order to be put to death.

Canada’s euthanasia law does not define key terms, creating a natural slippery slope with the number of euthanasia deaths and reasons for killing expanding very quickly.

The bill gives the power to decide life or death to the primary doctor with confirmation by a second doctor. Nowhere does the bill prohibit doctor shopping which is common in jurisdictions that have legalized medical killing.

This bill is accurate when it states that the doctor can kill you or help you kill yourself. Most jurisdictions employ softened language such as assisted death or medical aid in dying.  We must call it what it is.

Legalizing euthanasia permits medical murder. It kills the patient, who is in need of care not killing, and it changes the doctor who turns from healing to killing.

Uruguay needs to rejects this bill.