What is the process?
For the presentation of citizen initiatives, the Constitution establishes in its article 71 that at least 0.13% of citizens registered on the nominal electoral list may present proposals for law reforms.
The Nominal List is currently made up of 99,954,948, so 0.13% is equivalent to 129,942 signatures, and according to the activists who presented the proposal, they indicated that almost 130 thousand people supported them.
The Organic Law of the General Congress of the United Mexican States establishes that activists not only deliver the initiative, but also a document with names, signatures and voter codes of the citizens who support the reform.
Subsequently, the proposal must be delivered to the president of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of origin, who will report to the Plenary and request the National Electoral Institute (INE) to validate the signatures delivered.
The electoral body will carry out the verification through the Executive Directorate of the Federal Voter Registry within a period of no more than 30 calendar days from receipt of the file. This process consists of corroborating the names of the citizens who signed the initiative and their signatures.
If it is confirmed that the proposal meets the percentage required by the Constitution, the Board of Directors will turn the initiative over to a commission for analysis and opinion. If it is endorsed by the majority of legislators, it will go to the Plenary and subsequently to the reviewing Chamber to follow the same process of analysis and voting.
Facts about euthanasia
One of the countries that endorse euthanasia is Belgium, which is one of the pioneer territories in regulating it since 2002, where it is subject to it being voluntary, thoughtful and repeated, and that the patient must be in unbearable suffering as a result of an incurable and serious illness.
In Spain it has also been allowed since 2021. In this country, terminal patients have access to both euthanasia and assisted suicide in cases of incurable conditions that cause them intolerable suffering.
In Colombia, euthanasia has been decriminalized since 1997, but it was not regulated until 2015, which is why it is established that the patient must have a terminal illness, consider that life has ceased to be dignified as a result of the illness, and express consent in a clearly informed and complete manner.
The proposal is promoted by activist Samara Martínez, who is a patient diagnosed with end-stage chronic kidney failure, systemic lupus erythematosus, for which she has already received two kidney transplants and must undergo dialysis for 10 hours a day.
The last time a citizen initiative was presented was in 2018, when activists went to the Congress of the Union to announce that officials would present their assets, interests and tax declaration, which was known as “3de3”. The first legislators to support this reform were from the PRD and the PAN.
