Abstract

Euthanasia is one of the most controversial aspects, not only in medicine but also in other fields such as ethics, law, sociology, ontology, philosophy, etc. This is because it involves a decision in which a patient's life is ended with their absolute consent and supervised by a medical team. Currently, only ten countries have legalized euthanasia. The first of these was the Netherlands on April 1, 2002, and subsequently followed by Belgium (2002), Luxembourg (2009), Colombia (2014), Canada (2016), Spain (2021), New Zealand (2021), Portugal (2023), Cuba (2023), and Ecuador (2024). Uruguay has approved the euthanasia bill in the Chamber of Deputies (2025), and its respective treatment in the Senate is still pending for it to become law. Thus, of the 195 currently recognized countries, only 5.12% have legalized euthanasia. Given that euthanasia is a highly controversial topic due to its moral, ethical, and regulatory contradictions, there is an urgent need to implement a corresponding regulatory framework in those countries that still lack one.