With 109 votes and unanimously, the Senate of the Republic on Monday approved a reform to paragraph four of article 4 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, to incorporate palliative care for diseases in terminal situation.
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The approved opinion also provides for the use of controlled medicinal products as part of the right to health.
What is dignified death?
The initiative clarifies that dignified death is not the same as assisted suicide or euthanasia, as palliative care for terminal illnesses “has as their main basis to avoid suffering because of care, but not to end life”.
What rights does the reform grant?
With the changes endorsed by legislators, Article 4 provides that “everyone has the right to the protection of his health under conditions of dignity. The Law will define the bases and modalities for access to health services including multidisciplinary palliative care for terminal, limiting or life-threatening diseases, as well as the use of controlled medicines” .
Who will be responsible for granting the palliatives?
According to the opinion, with dignified death it will be “the duty of the health system to provide social measures that avoid the suffering of the sick, thereby giving their quality of life until their last moment”.
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Such intervention should be carried out “with elements capable of giving value to human dignity, moral, spiritual, mental, psychological, psychiatric and emotional, with the possibility of lengthening its preservation”.
Palliative care is recognized in the context of the human right to health.
We approve the constitutional reform on #CuidadosPaliativos.
Find out what it’s about: pic.twitter.com/qTOwezSxEF
— Rocío Abreu Artiñano (@RocioAbreuA) July 1, 2019
What diseases will be treated like this?
Diseases that can be treated with palliative care include cardiovascular care, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, AIDS and diabetes.
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People with kidney failure, chronic liver disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, neurological diseases, dementia, birth defects and tuberculosis may also receive palliative care drug-resistant.
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