In an interview with Luis Cárdenas for MVS Noticias, Samara Martínez, an activist and patient with multiple chronic degenerative diseases, spoke about the Transcendence Law, an initiative that seeks to legalize euthanasia and medically assisted suicide in Mexico.
Martínez shared her personal experience and her fight to open the debate surrounding “dying well,” emphasizing that “health is an invisible privilege until it is lost.”
Samara Martínez lives with systemic lupus erythematosus, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, end-stage chronic kidney disease, hypertension, and mixed dyslipidemia, conditions that have led her to be connected to a machine for hours each day.
Despite her healthy appearance, she stresses that invisible illnesses are not seen, but are deeply felt:
“I take good care of myself, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. You could have been with me an hour ago, and my morning was a nightmare. Life is a matter of perspective, because how you are here—in your mind—more than in your body, is what you reflect.”
Who is Samara Martínez, the 30-year-old journalist seeking euthanasia due to a terminal illness?
Martínez recalls critical periods: “Last year I spent six months in hospitals, receiving blood transfusions, unable to stand, extremely swollen from fluid retention. You’re bedridden, writhing in pain, and that’s the reality.”
The focus of her struggle is the Transcendence Law, a proposal to reform Article 166 of the General Health Law, which currently prohibits euthanasia. The initiative proposes extending the right to a dignified death to people with chronic degenerative diseases or disabling conditions verified by medical specialists.
“We want the right of those living with incurable illnesses, who no longer have the opportunity to improve their quality of life, to be recognized. Not that you have six months or a year left, but that you have the option to say: I’m tired, and that’s also valid.”
Martínez clarifies that the proposal does not impose euthanasia on anyone: “If someone wants to continue due to personal beliefs or convictions, go ahead. No one is being forced here. All we ask is that the option be given to those who need it.”
“I’m not giving up: fighting for a dignified death is an act of courage.”
During the interview, Samara faced one of the most brutal questions she often receives on social media: “Why don’t you kill yourself?”
Her response was firm and profoundly human:
“I don’t answer them. They speak from ignorance. The third leading cause of suicide in Mexico is chronic pain. How awful that a person has to die alone, in pain, without being able to say goodbye, because the State doesn’t allow them to pass on with dignity.”
And she added emphatically: “This isn’t giving up. All I’ve done for half my life is fight. For me, this requires courage, it requires a lot of strength. I focus on the good, because I only have energy for good.”
Martínez has achieved something unusual in the legislative arena: uniting representatives from different political parties around a common cause.
“Yesterday, for example, something historic happened in the Chamber of Deputies: legislators from Morena and Movimiento Ciudadano took to the podium without arguing, with complete conviction in their shared vision. That is what politics is all about.”
Source: mvsnoticias
