Mexico’s rising debate on euthanasia gains a new face: Video
A young Mexican activist living with terminal-stage renal failure has emerged as one of the country’s most prominent advocates for the legalisation of euthanasia, a story highlighted in an interview conducted by Viory, as national debate around dignified death gains momentum.
Footage from Wednesday shows 30-year-old Samara Martínez preparing her daily medication, counting supplies for her hemodialysis sessions and browsing the Ley Trasciende website, the citizen-led proposal she promotes to reform Mexico’s General Health Law and Federal Penal Code.
Drawing directly from her experience as a chronic patient, Martínez argues that Mexico must establish a regulated framework for euthanasia and assisted suicide for adults facing terminal, degenerative, or irreversible illnesses. She explains that the draft legislation “specifies to legalise and decriminalise euthanasia for people over 18 years of age who have an incurable, chronic, degenerative, or terminal stage disease, or some disabling or health-threatening condition.” The proposal also prioritises medical verification and patient autonomy, requiring confirmation from two doctors and repeated consent from the applicant.
Martínez’s advocacy reflects the profound physical and emotional toll of her condition. She undergoes long and demanding hemodialysis sessions due to chronic renal failure, further complicated by lupus. For her, the push for legislative reform is deeply personal, grounded in what she sees as a fundamental right to self-determination: “When such a strong disease comes into your life and after many years of battling it, I think it is dignified to empower yourself over your own death,” she says.
On 28 October, Martínez presented the Ley Trasciende proposal before Mexico’s Senate, noting broad openness across parliamentary groups and meetings with health committees aimed at securing a public debate in the next legislative period. While Mexico currently criminalises assisted death as “homicide out of pity”, the growing visibility of cases like hers is reshaping public discussion over whether the country should allow patients living with irreversible suffering to choose a dignified end to life.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
