A 79-year old man suffering from incurable throat cancer has become the first Colombian to die of euthanasia with the full backing of the government.
Ovidio Gonzalez died Friday in the western city of Pereira. He'd spent weeks fighting doctors and hospital administrators to carry out a Health Ministry decree mandating clinics to perform the procedure when requested by terminally ill patients.
A Constitutional Court ruling 17 years ago made Colombia the first and still only country in Latin America to allow euthanasia, but Congress never passed laws formally regulating it.
Gonzalez's case is the first since April's Health Ministry decree. Until now, most assisted suicides were carried out at patients' homes and performed by doctors in a state of legal limbo.
