Euthanasia in Uruguay

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Euthanasia in Uruguay is not expressly legal. However, some legal provisions allow clemency for assisting suicide under vague conditions.

Background

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The 1933 Penal Code of Uruguay was among the first legal documents to include a provision relating to euthanasia. It allowed for exculpation of homicide carried out under certain undefined conditions, stating that "judges are authorized to forego punishment of a person whose previous life has been honorable where he commits a homicide motivated by compassion, induced by repeated requests of the victim."[1]

This is further reinforced in another article, 127, which states that the judge could waive the doctor, if this action was made by patient pledge and the doctor had an honorable reputation.[2][3] This de facto permissive stance has led the respected Hungarian medical journal Orvosi Hetilap to consider Uruguay as having legalised a form of active euthanasia.[4]

According to Derek Humphry, assisting suicide requires appearance in court, but does not appear to have caused any judicial sentences.[5]

On 13 August 2025, the Chamber of Representatives voted to advance a bill to legalize euthanasia under conditions of specific terminal illnesses.[6]

Minors

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If parents attempt to refuse treatment to a minor, against the advice of the attending physician, then they would be in abuse of their parental authority, as they would be deemed to not always be acting in their child's best interests.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Silving, Helen. "Euthanasia: A Study in Comparative Criminal Law". University of Pennsylvania Law Review. 103 (Dec. 1954) 3: 368–369. doi:10.2307/3310143. Retrieved 19 August 2025.
  2. ^ Reta A, Grezzi O. Código penal de la República Oriental del Uruguay. 4th ed. Montevideo: Fundación de Cultura Universitaria; 1996.
  3. ^ MacGuire, Daniel C. "Death, Legal and Illegal". The Atlantic Online. Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  4. ^ Hetil, Orv (2014). "Euthanasia outside Europe". Orv Hetil. 155 (32): 1259–64. doi:10.1556/OH.2014.29978. PMID 25087217.
  5. ^ Humphry, Derek. "Tread Carefully When You Help to Die, Assisted Suicide Laws Around the World". Assisted Suicide. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  6. ^ "Uruguay's lower house passes euthanasia bill". Buenos Aires Herald. 13 August 2025. Retrieved 19 August 2025.
  7. ^ Méndez, Pedro J. Montano y Gómez de Alía, Juan José Puerto González, Mauricio Iglesias (2011). Medical law in Uruguay. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International. p. 133. ISBN 978-90-411-3785-2. Retrieved 15 August 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)