MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan future lawmakers hope to get euthanasia legalized shortly

In Preve's view, legal euthanasia is a much-needed alternative and “a right for many people who are in quite complicated situations”

The incoming administration of Uruguay's future President Yamandú Orsi taking office on March 1 may see the euthanasia bill passed, it was reported this week in Montevideo. The initiative is currently stalled in the Senate.

Congressman-elect Federico Preve -a graduate physician- intends to fetch the draft from the shelves and, for that, he will count on fellow lawmakers of the ruling Multicolor coalition, specifically from the National (White) - of President Luis Lacalle Pou - and the Colorado Parties. However, other alliance partners such as Cabildo Abierto would not be adhering, it was explained. Within the new Legislature, the FA controls the Senate but lacks a majority of its own in the Lower House.

Earlier this week, Preve told local media that future legislators Diego Echeverría (PN) and Diego Riveiro (Colorado) would join him in pushing through the idea. He also said he would discuss the matter with fellow Congressman-elect Gerardo Sotelo of the Independent Party (PI).

According to Preve, the plan is to introduce a new bill that is as similar as possible to the previous one, in a move to speed up its approval. “I have great expectations that by the end of the year, or next year at the latest, Uruguay will have decriminalized euthanasia,” Preve stressed while recalling that Colorado Ope Pasquet's bill “did not even” get a “yes or no” after failing to make it through the Senate's Health Committee. In Preve's view, legal euthanasia is a much-needed alternative and “a right for many people who are in quite complicated situations.”

Echeverría said that the exchange with Preve was limited to the “philosophical” aspects of the initiative, although he anticipated that he would maintain his support since it is “a personal and philosophical question” on which “once one takes a position, one does not change.”

Riveiro also pointed out that the bill was a “political commitment” for his party and agreed with Preve that “the best thing” is to present Pasquet's bill “as a basis” and take it from there because “it can be improved”.

Sotelo told reporters that he would be meeting with Preve to discuss the matter but admitted that “in principle” he has no qualms supporting his proposal.