The Global Shift Toward Legalizing Euthanasia Is Moving Fast
Recent cases and changing laws highlight the need for public discussion
Trigger Warning: this article discusses suicide and death. The content may be upsetting for many readers.
Ana Estrada was a Peruvian woman who suffered from polymyositis, an inflammatory disease that causes muscle weakness. Her illness left her paralyzed, in need of round-the-clock care, and depressed. Starting in 2019, she sought the right to be granted death by euthanasia.
Euthanasia — ending a patient’s life to relieve suffering — is illegal in Peru. However, in 2022 the Supreme Court ordered that the law be “disapplied” in Estrada’s case. In April 2024, she became the first person in Peru to die by legal euthanasia.
In 2022, Estrada told Reuters:
“Why death with dignity? Because I want to avoid suffering, I want to avoid pain, but above all because this is about life and this is about freedom.”
The freedom Estrada sought is only guaranteed in a handful of places, but her case is an example of a growing openness to euthanasia. In the past several decades, public support for euthanasia has quietly grown and several nations have taken the lead in legalization.
