Ana Estrada case: Why did the Supreme Court decide to extend the final hearing on her request for a dignified death?

Psychologist and activist Ana Estrada will have to wait two more weeks to hear the resolution of the Permanent Constitutional and Social Law Chamber of the Supreme Court on her request to recognize and guarantee her fundamental right to death in dignified conditions. The day before, this collegiate decided to extend the hearing for next January 31.

For 30 years, Ana has suffered from a progressive incurable polymyositis that has led her to suffer severe pain. It is a rare inflammatory and autoimmune disease that causes muscle weakness and becomes disabling over time.

The Supreme Court’s collegiate decided to postpone this final hearing to approximately 5 pm yesterday, which will resume on Monday, January 31 at 10:30 am in order to hear the technical reports of the plaintiff’s medical professionals, one appointed by the Ombudsman, Essalud and the Peruvian Society for Palliative Care (SPCP).

“The decision was adopted by the court to listen to the experts, have extensive knowledge of the subject and resolve with all the guarantees of due process.”, pointed out the Judiciary.

Since the Ombudsman’s Office has not issued a statement on the decision of the collegiate to extend the final hearing to listen to the doctors.

“It’s not about giving up”

During her speech at yesterday’s hearing, Ana Estrada described to the magistrates the reason for her request for a dignified death.

“It’s not about giving up. It is not that I have stopped valuing life, on the contrary. This fight that I undertook four years ago for the right to a dignified death I did initially out of commitment and respect for the life I had lived until then, before entering the ICU, and I continue to stand firm in that commitment and the defense of my rights for life and liberty, for autonomy, for the right to decide how long I can tolerate suffering. I am not giving up, it is not about wanting to die and I said it from the first day that I made my request public through my networks“, Held.

He added: “I want and request is to take control of my decisions to be able to speak right now I have had to rest. I have had to cover my trachea and at times I uncover it when you intervene, but I will not be able to do this in a while, that is why I request and want to reiterate that I am not asking to die or to be allowed to die , what I am asking is to take control, my will of my autonomy and decisions”.

When asked by the judges about the right to life, Ana Estrada indicated that “life is not only biological, it is biographical and that is why I am campaigning for my story, I am not doing nor have I ever wanted to make an apology or for this to expand to other areas”.

“I have all the palliative care, so it may sound contradictory that I am fighting to have a dignified death and at the same time want to live, because that is what life is about, living in freedom”, he also expressed.

At another time, Ana Estrada told how her day to day is. “I am currently under the care of health personnel. I am connected to the ventilator most of the day. Although these 30 years of illness have been hard, what has remained intact has been my lucidity and my mental and emotional awareness. I think I wouldn’t have had enough strength if I wasn’t aware of what awaits me. My disease is not a terminal illness like cancer, that’s why I made the decision to take control and my right to choose”.

Case Background

On January 22 of last year, the 11th Constitutional Court of Lima declared the amparo claim filed by the Ombudsman’s Office in favor of Ana Estrada partially founded. In the sentence, the judge declared article 112 of the Penal Code (merciful homicide) inapplicable to the case, stating that the Ministry of Health and Essalud should take action to guarantee that the plaintiff could, when she considered it so, exercise her right to a death in dignified conditions and access a medical euthanasia procedure.

The defendant institutions (Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Ministry of Health and Essalud) declined the possibility of filing appeals.

Despite the absence of an appeal, the file was submitted to the Supreme Court, so that it approves the non-application of the article of the Penal Code and thus the sentence can be carried out in the future.

In response to a request made by the Ombudsman, the Constitutional and Social Chamber scheduled the hearing of the present process for Monday, January 17.

In the hearing the day before, the Ombudsman Walter Gutiérrez also intervened, who trusts that in this instance he will reaffirm the position of the first sentence, which gave the green light for Ana Estrada to have access to a death in dignified conditions.

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