Martha Sepúlveda Campo, a 51-year-old Colombian Catholic, smiles at the television camera while joking with her son and having a beer to celebrate:
this Sunday, October 10, she will die by euthanasia
.
"From the spiritual level, I am totally calm," said the woman, who defines herself as "a Catholic person, very believing," in an interview with the Colombian television network Noticias Caracol.
Sepúlveda will be the first patient with a non-terminal illness to receive euthanasia in Colombia, a pioneer country in the right to a dignified death in Latin America and the world.
“God does not want to see me suffer, and I believe that no one.
No parent wants to see their children suffer, ”said Sepúlveda, who has suffered from a degenerative disease since 2019.
Martha Sepúlveda Campo, 51, has requested authorization to carry out an assisted death in Colombia.
Courtesy screenshot / Caracol News
Over time, the symptoms have gotten worse, to the point that you can no longer walk without assistance.
His diagnosis is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a disease of the nervous system that affects the mobility of the body.
Many patients cope without problems, but in some cases, like Martha's, it can be serious.
"In the state that I have [the disease], the best thing that can happen to me is to rest," the woman told the television network.
Colombia was the first country in Latin America to decriminalize euthanasia, in 1997, and it is one of the few in the world where the procedure is legal.
But until this year, it was only allowed in cases of terminal illness.
On July 22, the Colombian Constitutional Court expanded the right, allowing the procedure "provided that the patient suffers intense physical or mental suffering from bodily injury or serious and incurable disease," according to the EFE agency.
I am calmer since the procedure was authorized, I laugh more, I sleep more calmly "
Martha Sepúlveda Patient Field
Four days later, Sepúlveda requested a permit, which was granted on August 6.
"I am calmer since the procedure was authorized, I laugh more, I sleep calmer," said the woman, who has the support of a large part of her family.
Her 11 siblings agree to the procedure, and her son has been by her side just to make her happy in her final days.
"I need my mother, I want her with me, almost in any condition, but I know that in her words she no longer lives, she survives," Federico Redondo Sepúlveda told Noticias Caracol.
However, not everyone has agreed and a sticking point has been their religion.
"With my mother the issue has been more difficult," says Sepúlveda, "but I think that deep down she also understands it," he adds.
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His decision faces strong critics, in a country with a large majority of Catholic believers and where
the Church still calls euthanasia a "serious offense."
This was precisely what the Episcopal Conference of Colombia indicated in a statement issued after the decision of the Constitutional Court in July.
Monsignor Francisco Antonio Ceballos Escobar, said it was a "homicide gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the divine respect of its creator," and called to take care of the sick instead of facilitating the procedure, the local press reported.
Sepúlveda is aware of this and has discussed it with his pastors.
“I know that the owner of life is God, yes.
Nothing moves without his will ”, she reaffirms when interviewed.
But then, "I think he is allowing this" and not that she is "bedridden," she reasons.
Camila Jaramillo Salazar, a lawyer for the family, says that this difficult decision can have great support from the Colombian people, despite criticism from the Church.
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In fact, more than 72% of those surveyed by Invamer's latest Colombia Opina poll say they agree with euthanasia, with a higher percentage in the country's largest cities.
"Perhaps Colombia can be a leading country in terms of advances in dignified death," Jaramillo told Noticias Caracol.
Euthanasia was decriminalized in 1997 in case of terminal illness, when the patient suffered a lot of pain, requested it voluntarily and was carried out by a doctor.
But the Government did not give a regulation that would allow it until April 20, 2015.
Since then, just 157 procedures have been performed in the country, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
A sign that there has been no abuse of the right, according to experts.
On the other hand, every five requests for euthanasia, two are authorized, says DescLAB, Laboratory of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The first patient to achieve a dignified death in the country was Ovidio González Correa, a 79-year-old man with a face deformed by a tumor and who became a symbol of the struggle for rights.
Martha Sepúlveda Campo has suffered from a degenerative disease for three years.Courtesy Capture / Caracol News
Now, it is Sepúlveda's turn to make history as the first person without a terminal illness to access a dignified death.
And for this, he chose a day full of meaning: this Sunday, October 10 at 7 in the morning.
"As on Sunday we always go to church, to mass, I chose that day," he says.
Sepúlveda wants it to be early so that he can give time to do the whole day: the procedure, the cremation, the delivery of the ashes and the Eucharist.
When asked about those who ask her to fight instead of asking for assisted death, she responds that hers was also a battle.
"
I will be a coward, but I don't want to suffer anymore," he said.
"To struggle?
I fight to rest ”
, he concluded.
