BRAZIL – Taboos and prejudice still prevent access to a self-determined end of life
07 August 2024
Guest article by Luciana Dadalto* and Adriano Machado Facioli**
In Brazil, issues involving the individual’s self-determination over their own end of life and body are still considered taboo. Furthermore: they are also considered to violate the Christian faith.
Unfortunately, the truth is that, although the Federal Constitution states that there is a separation between the state and religions, the preamble expressly says that the promulgation of the text took place “under the protection of God”. And this says a lot about how dignity in dying is viewed in our country.
Currently, two articles of the Brazilian Penal Code (dating from 1941) are used to classify assisted dying:
Euthanasia: Art. 121. Killing someone
Penalty: imprisonment, from six to twenty years.
Penalty reduction: § 1 If the perpetrator commits the crime impelled by motives of relevant social or moral value, or under the control of violent emotion, immediately following unjust provocation of the victim, the judge may reduce the sentence by one-sixth to one-third.
Assisted suicide: Art. 122. Inducing or instigating someone to commit suicide or self-harm, or providing them with material assistance to do so[1]
Penalty: imprisonment, from six months to two years
In addition to these articles of the 80-year-old Penal Code, the right to life, enshrined in the Constitution, is understood by the majority of the population – who are Christians and conservative – as the duty to live until “God” takes the person from this world.
This is why:
- therapeutic futility and is a common practice in hospitals, understood by doctors and family members as a form of care.
- for those advocating palliative care (who are still a minority), the understanding that access to palliative care alone guarantees a dignified death is still dominant.
- in recent decades, a few legislative projects which aim to legalise assisted dying have been presented, but these few have been rejected or forgotten in the bureaucracy of the Brazilian National Congress.
- the search for recognition of the right to die has not yet reached (or at least, no case has been publicized) the Federal Supreme Court, the country’s highest court.
Furthermore, considering that the current composition of the Brazilian National Congress is probably the most conservative in the entire history of the young Brazilian democracy (which emerged in 1985, after more than 20 years of an extreme right-wing military dictatorship), there is no expectation of a law on assisted dying for the coming years.
It is important to say that in several conservative countries with a Christian majority, especially in Latin America, seeking judiciary review at courts has proven to be the most effective strategy for assisted dying. We saw this in the recent cases of Peruvian Ana Estrada and Ecuadorian Paola Roldán Espinosa. However, until today in Brazil no person has taken a case to the highest court fighting for the right to die.
In any case, there are no guarantees (or expectations) that the Federal Supreme Court would judge in favour of a request for voluntary euthanasia and / or assisted suicide. Especially because the composition of this institution has become more conservative in recent years.
On the other hand, the number of academic research on assisted dying has grown, as has the Brazilian media’s interest in the topic. As a result, “euthanasia” and “assisted suicide” are words that are increasingly present in discussions, even though the vast majority of Brazilians who engage in these discussions use religious arguments to express their opposition, always with the argument that “God gives us life and only he can take it from us”.
The number of Brazilians who seek out Swiss organizations also increases exponentially every year. However, in addition to the economic barrier and the prejudice of Brazilian health professionals, these people often lack the necessary language skills. Because of this, they often look for people in Brazil who study assisted dying, ask for help and receive a painful refusal of help due to these scholars’ fear of being investigated and, eventually, convicted of the crime of “inducing, instigating or assisting suicide or self-harm”.
This is the Brazilian scenario – or, the “non-scenario” – regarding assisted dying. Therefore, we call on everyone around the world who believes in and fights for the cause, to help us put Brazil on the map of discussions about assisted dying, as well as to place assisted dying on the list of urgent topics in our country.
* Luciana Dadalto is a lawyer, bioethicist, researcher on topics involving autonomy and dignity at the end of life, and administrator of the portal www.testamentovital.com.br
** Adriano Machado Facioli, psychologist, activist for assisted dying, administrator of a Brazilian Facebook group about euthanasia, Professor in the Department of Research and Scientific Communication at Escola Superior de Ciências da Saúde in Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil.
[1] wording according to Law No. 13,968, from 2019
