Pro-life Colombian lawmakers oppose euthanasia for children

CNA Newsroom, Nov 30, 2022 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

The Pro-Life Caucus of Colombia’s Congress expressed its opposition to a bill that would extend euthanasia to children 6 and older, calling it “a new attack against the Colombian family.”

Debate began Nov. 29 on a new euthanasia bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Liberal Party congressman Juan Carlos Losada.

The bill proposes that a minor who has “a serious and incurable illness or bodily injury that causes intense physical or mental suffering” can receive “medically assisted death.”

The text adds that “it’s not necessary nor will it be required to prove the existence of a terminal illness or a medical prognosis of imminent death.”

In a statement posted Nov. 29 on Twitter, the 60-plus lawmakers of the Pro-Life Caucus expressed their “total disagreement with the aim of legalizing euthanasia for children in our country, even more so, without the consent of their parents and in cases in which the disease is not in a terminal phase.”

The pro-life legislators pointed out that there are “provisions that ignore the State’s responsibility to provide, as a priority and in a timely manner, the care required by minors.”

“We reject the law’s assumption that a 6-year-old child can have the necessary maturity to decide on his death” and that “the only requirement is that he suffer from a serious and incurable illness such as depression, diabetes, blindness, or the loss of an extremity,” said the Pro-life Caucus, whose members belong to different political parties.

The caucus expressed its support for the legislators who have taken to the floor to speak against this bill, “which will be accompanied by the vote of all the congressmen who defend life in Colombia.”

“Colombia is pro-life and this caucus will defend life and the family in the face of this new attack,” they said.

In reference to the electoral platform of leftist President Gustavo Petro, who took office in August, the pro-life lawmakers pointed out that “it’s inconsistent that in the government that seeks to make Colombia a ‘World Power for Life,’ there are congressmen who find it cheaper to end the lives of patients than to take away their pain.”

“The Government of Change cannot mean the change towards the culture of death,” the caucus stressed.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.