Difference between euthanasia, assisted suicide and medically assisted suicide

Some countries legally recognize decisions that intentionally seek to hasten death, such as:

• Euthanasia: A medical act in which a physician administers drugs to painlessly end a patient’s life at their request. It is legalized in the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Canada, Luxembourg, and Australia.

  
  

• Medically Assisted Suicide: A physician provides the means (typically medication) in response to a patient’s explicit request, allowing the patient to carry out the final act themselves. This is legal in certain U.S. states, as well as in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Germany, and Australia.

  
  

• Assisted Suicide: A non-medical individual provides the means for the patient to end their life, also upon explicit request. This is permitted in Switzerland, where five associations disseminate and operate under strict criteria to uphold the right to die with dignity being more accessible to members of the associations and only one of these accepts foreign applicants.

Considering the diverse perspectives of other countries regarding end-of-life decision-making provides Mexico with an updated framework that could serve as a guide, drawing on the experienced models of Palliative Care Associations and Units in hospitals around the world.

It is time for Mexico to bring this broader debate closer to the recognition of the varied needs that arise at the end of life, in order to expand the available choices for a dignified death across all its possible expressions. This process should be reviewed with truthful transparency and the involvement of conscience and solidarity with a segment of society who wish to raise their voices, defining precise criteria for the application and regulation of each and every such decision (patient eligibility, available means or methods, etc.).

The mere possibility of legitimizing one’s own will fosters self-confidence and treatment adherence by acknowledging the support for the stage preceding death, with the sole idea of ​​having the freedom to choose within one's own value system, what each person considers the best conditions for living until the final moment (with minimal suffering, at home, surrounded by family), not as an imposition or obligation.

An essential aspect of both human and professional practice is the ability to confront ethical and moral dilemmas—where medical respect for conscientious objection must always be weighed alongside, and especially in favor of, the patient’s right to autonomy in decision-making regarding their understanding of suffering and quality of life in its strictest and most individual sense.