A bill entered the Chamber of Deputies to regulate the voluntary medically assisted death (MMA). The initiative, presented by the deputy Esteban Paulon (file 2408-D-2026), proposes recognizing the right of every person to request medical assistance in dying, with a procedure of multiple evaluation instances.
The text distinguishes two modalities: euthanasia —direct administration of a lethal substance by a health professional—and the assisted deathin which the doctor prescribes the substance and the patient self-administers it. To access, the applicant must be an Argentine citizen or permanent resident, be at least 16 years old and suffer from a serious and incurable illness or a disabling chronic condition with intolerable suffering not relieved by palliative care. The request must be made twice with a minimum interval of 15 days.
The procedure includes evaluation by the responsible doctor, accompaniment of a interdisciplinary team —psychology, palliative medicine and bioethics—and a second evaluation of a independent consulting physician. Then a Evaluation and Guarantees Commissionwhich issues an opinion in seven days. Only with a favorable opinion can progress be made.
The AMM would remain included in the PMO without copaywith mandatory coverage of social works, prepaid and the public system. Conscientious objection applies to individual professionals but not to institutions: no establishment can refuse to guarantee access. The project also modifies the Penal Code, the Patient’s Rights Law and the Civil and Commercial Code to eliminate the legal vacuum that today subsumes this practice in the criminal types of homicide and assistance to suicide. If approved, it would come into effect 180 days after its enactment.
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