The lower house of Mexico’s legislative branch was scheduled to receive on Wednesday a bill to legalize medically assisted suicide, currently prohibited throughout the country.

The legislation before the Chamber of Deputies, dubbed the Ley Trasciende (Transcendence Law), has been promoted by the Dignified Death Now Coalition, which seeks to reform  Mexico’s General Health Law on euthanasia in order to “define, recognize and guarantee the constitutional right to a dignified death.”

Activist Samara Martínez, who is living with end-stage renal disease, has been a leading voice in the pro-euthanasia campaign, working alongside the coalition to promote the right to assisted death.

“The Transcendence Law does not seek to promote death; it seeks to humanize it,”  Martínez said during an earlier presentation of the proposal in the Senate on Tuesday. “It seeks to ensure that no Mexican man or woman has to die suffering in pain, in fear, but above all, in agony. Because dying in peace is also a right.” 

The proposal supports the right to decide on the end of life, voluntarily, with full information and free from coercion. It states that procedures must be requested by patients with terminal illnesses or irreversible suffering and be approved by a multidisciplinary team of physicians, psychologists and thanatologists. 

It also highlights the need to provide a team of medical personnel who do not conscientiously object to euthanasia. 

“I speak to you from experience,” Martínez stressed. “I have seen colleagues die in conditions that no human being should have to endure.” 

A group of patients suffering from chronic degenerative diseases and their caregivers recently gathered at the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City in support of the proposal. 

Currently, Mexico’s General Health Law Article 166 Bis 21 prohibits “the practice of euthanasia, understood as homicide out of compassion, as well as assisted suicide.” 

However, 20 Mexican states allow for passive euthanasia, allowing patients to refuse medical treatment in critical moments. 

In a 2022 survey by the Mexican organization For the Right to Die with Dignity, seven out of 10 participants said they supported the right to medically assisted suicide. 

The passing of a Law on Dignified Death in Uruguay earlier this month has drawn greater attention to the cause across Latin America. 

With reports from La Vanguardia, IMER Noticias and La Crónica de Hoy