BUENOS AIRES, July 9 (UPI) -- Argentina's Supreme Court decided Wednesday that an individual's relatives have the right to request the end of life support for a terminally ill patient.
The decision comes after a suit by the family of a man identified as M.A.D., who has been bed-ridden in a hospital with serious brain injuries that have kept him from talking, making gestures, processing his surroundings or eating normally for 20 years.
The man told his family to keep him off life support and allow him to die should the need arise. That was an request that couldn't be fulfilled until now.
Judges Ricardo Lorenzetti, Elena Highton de Nolasco and Juan Carlos Maqueda voted for a change in this policy, following work with Cuerpo Medico Forense (Medical Body of Forensics) and the Instituto de Neurociencias de la Fundacion Favaloro (Institute of Neuroscience from the Favaloro Foundation).
The court ruled that although the man did not inform relatives of his life choice in writing, their claim that he did suffices.
The ruling will give patients the option for a "dignified death", which the court insists is not euthanasia but rather a form of therapeutic abstinence in the cases where the choice can be made. Euthanasia is defined by the World Health Organization as any action by the doctor that accelerates a suffering patient's death, with or without the patient's consent.
In May 2012, Argentina legalized a patient's right to declare his unwillingness to continue treatment when in a terminally ill state.
