Peruvian seeks to change laws on 'mercy killing'

(30 Dec 2019) Almost completely paralyzed by a terminal illness, 42-year-old Peruvian Ana Estrada says she is a "prisoner in her own body" and yearns to be legally allowed to end her own life.

But Peru doesn't permit medically assisted suicide, so Estrada is campaigning for a change in the law from her Lima home.

She spoke to the Associated Press with a feeding tube in her belly and another tube inserted into her windpipe to help her breathe.   

Estrada was diagnosed at the age of 14 with polymyositis, a disease that wastes away muscles and has no cure.

By 20, she was too weak to walk and started using a wheelchair.

Even so, she graduated with a psychology degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and worked as a therapist.

Estrada continued to build her life, saving money, buying an apartment, having a relationship and taking on a pet cat.

Things changed in 2015.

Her condition deteriorated, she got pneumonia and spent a year in intensive care in a Lima hospital.

"It's like being a prisoner in my own body, 24 hours a day," said Estrada, who needs round-the-clock care.

Her relationship collapsed and she gave up the cat for adoption, but has found renewed purpose in pushing for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.

Like everything in Estrada's life, the campaign is strewn with obstacles.

No member of Peru's legislature has taken up her cause.

In addition abortion and homosexual marriage are also illegal in the mostly Catholic country.

"It's a subject that scares, alarms people and it's something that burns, and nobody wants to put their hands in the fire because they'll get burned," said Estrada, whose family was initially reluctant to support her goal but now respects her decision.

She has found an ally in the public defender's office, which plans to go to court in the coming weeks to seek a legal exemption for Estrada that would allow her the option of medically assisted suicide.  

"In Peru, as in other countries at some point, 'mercy killing' is crime carrying three years in jail, so any person or doctor who wants to help her would be committing a crime," Ombudsman of Peru Walter Gutierrez said.

He said her case won't change the law, but it opens a path.   

Among those countries to have legalized euthanasia or medically assisted suicide are Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Eight US states and Washington DC have also legalized medically assisted suicide.

"If this exists in other countries, I want it to exist here," Estrada said.

Pneumologist Gonzalo Gianella, who has treated Estrada, said the illness was methodically shutting down her body because, without functioning muscles, "you begin to have trouble speaking, swallowing, breathing, moving, doing your things."

Bath time was the worst moment for Estrada when she was in the hospital.

One nurse held her and another cleaned her, speaking with each other but never looking at the patient to check if she was in pain.

Estrada has written a blog with her right index finger, the only finger that she can still move.

She has also struggled with depression, but remains committed to her campaign to end her life legally, mindful that right now anyone who helps her do so could be prosecuted.



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