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Hello dear readers,
This week in Chile we have once again talked about abortion and euthanasia, after the speech before the Nation and Congress of President Gabriel Boric, on Saturday, June 1. It was surprising for the country, even for some ministers and a good part of the ruling party, especially because, at this point, the Government seemed only focused on the two main areas that urge citizens: economic growth and crime control. I do not want to dwell this time on the chances that a comprehensive abortion law and another on euthanasia will come to fruition in this mandate: we all know that it is very difficult. There is little time left for this Administration, which does not have majorities in Congress, these two years are full of elections, etcetera, etcetera. Nor do I want to refer to Boric’s political reasons for doing so now. But I do want to dwell on the possibility that a society can talk about those transcendental issues that affect people’s lives and that are not necessarily – unfortunately – on the public agenda. Is there a certain time to debate abortion and euthanasia? Who decides? The conservative groups that defend the status quo? After two constitutional processes, which were rejected by the majority of society, Chile can clearly talk about individual freedoms.
Chile only stopped criminalizing abortion in all its causes in 2017. It was one of the only countries in the world where it was completely prohibited. But the vast majority of pregnancy terminations continue to be carried out clandestinely and in unsafe conditions for us women. The Ministry of Women’s own calculations speak of a range that goes from 30,000 to 150,000 a year, as Minister Antonia Orellana informed this newspaper in an interview conducted in March by Antonia Laborde. Isn’t it time to talk about it?
In 2019, in EL PAÍS, I interviewed Hernán Letelier, a very old Chilean actor, then 98 years old, who was slowly deteriorating – he could no longer see – and his life in extreme solitude had become unbearable. He was my friend. And Hernán, even though he was very conservative, very Catholic, cried out for them to let him die with dignity. He feared he would die alone, as finally happened, shortly before the pandemic broke out, in the summer of 2020. His body was found by neighbors several days after his death, while his cat Martina meowed throughout the apartment, in the center of Santiago de Chile. Why couldn’t a man so orderly, planned, cultured die as he wanted? Why was a human being who was raised by Amanda, his mother, with love and so much, condemned to die as he didn’t want to and in such undignified conditions? dedication? What came next, the way his apartment was dismantled, the attempt to kill his cat, his funeral, is another story…
And another of many cases: this week, regarding the debate opened by Boric, we went out to look for the story of Susana Moreira, the 40-year-old woman who wrote to the president to ask for the option of euthanasia. Boric cited her on Saturday in her speech. She suffers from muscular dystrophy that progressively and violently left her unable to walk and with unbearable pain in all of her joints and her story – shocking – is told by journalist María Victoria Agouborde in this interview that I highly recommend. Not only does she speak (“I want to live as long as I can do so with dignity”), but also her husband, who confesses: “She has been preparing me for this decision and I accept it, because worse than seeing a person die is seeing a person suffer.” ”.
Isn’t it always the right time to talk about euthanasia and abortion? Or can’t we?
Other stories
Thank you for receiving us in your mailbox. Here, below, we leave you the best journalistic pieces of the week worked from the EL PAÍS editorial office in Chile.
- The mayor of Recoleta, Daniel Jadue, has been in prison since Monday due to the precautionary measure filed within the framework of the investigation of the case popular pharmacies. In this piece by Ana María Sanhueza and me we tell it and, above all, we explain what the sometimes incomprehensible plot consists of.
- After the 2024 Public Account, Antonia Laborde interviewed Ascanio Cavallo to carry out a political analysis. “It gave me the impression of a resigned, somewhat defeated Government,” the National Journalism Award winner told EL PAÍS.
- In another area, a conversation with the young Chilean astronomer Teresa Paneque, one of the most popular voices in scientific dissemination today. “My idol in science is not Marie Curie. “They are my teachers,” she told journalist María Victoria Agouborde.
- And finally, two political columns: that of Pierina Ferretti, titled Stability is changeand that of Alfredo Joignant on the Jadue case, ‘Lawfare’ and cultural battles.
Thank you very much, dear readers. In another week, we will be back in your mailboxes.
Good June.
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