Legal Passing

From the BBC:
"Cancer patient becomes Colombia's first legal euthanasia case"

A 79-year old Colombian man has become the first person in the country to die legally by euthanasia.

Ovidio Gonzalez was suffering from terminal throat cancer and said he had been suffering unbearable pain. Colombia is one of the few countries in the world, and the only one in Latin America, where euthanasia is allowed. Assisted suicide was approved by the Constitutional Court in the 1990s. But no procedures had been performed because the measure had not been regulated. It was only in May that the health ministry intervened and issued a set of guidelines for hospitals. Mr Gonzalez died in a clinic in the western city of Pereira, after a legal battle. His son Julio Cesar is a cartoonist with one of Colombia's top newspapers, El Tiempo. "My father received the news [that the procedure had been approved] with relief," said Mr Gonzalez, better known by his pen name Matador, or The Killer. "It is a pity that it had to be like that. My dad deserved to go with less publicity," he added. Euthanasia is highly controversial in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

 

^ Everything should be available to people who are terminally-ill (whether it's medical marijuana or legal euthanasia.) No one should be forced to die in any pain. It is the second decade of the 21st Century and so there is no reason for the dying to experience pain. Doctors may not be able to cure certain cancers or illnesses, but they do have the power  to make the last moments peaceful. I know euthanasia is very controversial and it's not very everyone, but it should be made legal to everyone in every country that has a terminal-illness if he/she wants to use that option. With that side I don't think doctors should be forced to perform euthanasia if they don't agree with it, but they should be forced to refer the patient to a doctor who is willing to. Anyone who has gone through an illness or cancer (even if it's not terminal) or has witnessed a loved one die in pain knows how horrible it is. We have the technology to change that so someone dies peacefully. Now we just need the laws making euthanasia legal around the world. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-33392195