Overview

• The Senate approved the bill after more than ten hours of debate with 20 votes in favor out of 31, backed by all Frente Amplio senators and some from opposition parties.
• Uruguay becomes the region’s first country to legalize euthanasia by statute, differing from Colombia and Ecuador where court rulings decriminalized the practice.
• Eligibility requires adults who are citizens or residents to be mentally competent and facing terminal, incurable conditions or intolerable suffering, with a written request and a final declaration before witnesses.
• Procedural safeguards set short deadlines: the treating physician must assess eligibility within three days, and a second independent opinion or a medical board decision must follow within five days.
• All providers in the National Integrated Health System must offer the service, doctors may object on conscience grounds but must refer, public polling shows about 62% support, and critics including the Catholic Church and Prudência Uruguai question protections and access to palliative care.