By
The Associated Press
Paola Roldán, the Ecuadorian who suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and managed to get Ecuador to decriminalize euthanasia, died on Monday.
The 42-year-old woman's father informed the press of her death, although he did not specify whether she died as a result of the disease or due to the application of euthanasia, as he had requested from the Ecuadorian justice system.
The symptoms of this incurable and catastrophic illness began in 2020.
A statement signed by Francisco Roldán, her father, recalled that Paola Roldán's fight for the right to a dignified and compassionate death “has left a lasting impact on our society” and a significant change in Ecuadorian legislation.
She added that she died surrounded by her family and said goodbye with a “I love you,” dedicated to those who accompanied her.
She asked to respect her “privacy at this delicate moment.”
Roldán remained bedridden at home, connected to a respirator and with permanent assistance, because the disease had eliminated her ability to use her muscles, which forced her to be fed intravenously.
After months of legal struggle before the Constitutional Court, Roldán managed to have that Court – the highest in matters of constitutional interpretation – decriminalize euthanasia for the first time in Ecuador on February 7.
[Martha Sepúlveda, the Catholic woman from Colombia whose historic case shocked the world, dies from euthanasia]
He also gave the Ministry of Health a period of two months to develop a regulation on euthanasia.
Upon hearing the verdict, Roldán had said that “I receive this news very moved and with relief.
There were days when I thought I would never hear the outcome of this lawsuit.”
In mid-January, the woman reported that between Christmas and New Year she was on the verge of dying dozens of times due to congestion - obstruction of the airways - and that she even received the holy oils, according to what she said on her social network account while urging the Court's magistrates to issue a response to his request.
In his last publication in
In that social network she described herself “as an activist for a dignified life and death.”
In another publication on
According to his message, such a proposal was close to starting and “will have an enormous impact on patients and families.”
It is estimated that in Ecuador there are about 340 people affected by the same disease.
In Latin America, Colombia is the only country that has decriminalized euthanasia, which is carried out by doctors using drugs to cause the death of patients with terminal illnesses.
The practice is also legal in Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and several states in Australia.
In Chile it is under debate.
Other jurisdictions — including several U.S. states — allow assisted suicide, in which patients take the lethal drug themselves, usually in a drink prescribed by a doctor.
In August 2023, Roldán demanded the unconstitutionality of article 144 of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code, which classifies the crime of homicide and provides for a sentence of 10 to 13 years in prison.
“Week after week I am a conscious witness of each power that I am losing,” he had said in November to the judges of the Constitutional Court before whom he appeared online.