URUGUAY - Legalizing Euthanasia

Uruguay’s senate passed a law decriminalizing euthanasia, putting the South American nation among a handful of other countries where seriously ill patients can legally obtain help to end their lives.

During the debate, senators from the ruling Broad Front coalition delivered impassioned defenses of the right to die, comparing the euthanasia movement to the legalization of divorce and same-sex marriage.

Most opposition to euthanasia in Uruguay came from the Catholic Church. Before the vote, Daniel Sturla, the archbishop of Montevideo, called on Uruguayans “to defend the gift of life and to remember that every person deserves to be cared for, accompanied and supported until the end.”

Officials hailed the law’s passage as reinforcing Uruguay’s reputation as among the most socially liberal nations in the region. The country was first in the world to legalize marijuana for recreational use and passed pioneering legislation allowing same-sex marriage and abortion over a decade ago.

-www.cbsnews.com, 16 October 2025

Commentary: Google’s AI Overview reveals: “Countries with legal active euthanasia include Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and Uruguay, along with several Australian states. Portugal has passed a law, but it is not yet in force and awaits regulation. Switzerland allows assisted suicide, but not active euthanasia, as it is the first country in the world to permit assisted dying, though legality is restricted under certain circumstances.”

The tendency becomes clearer as time goes on.

For example: same-sex marriage. According to ndtv.com, the first country to recognize same-sex marriage was the Netherlands in 2001, thereafter followed by 37 nations, including Thailand in January 2025.

This tendency is also evident when it comes to abortion. ReproductiveRights.org states: “Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries and territories have liberalized their abortion laws. France was the first nation to constitutionalize abortion in 2024.”

Here we are reminded of the words of Jesus’ prophecy: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12). Bible readers know that God gives life and God takes life. In the case of euthanasia, man makes the decision.

Later in the same chapter, Jesus makes this prophecy comparing the time before His coming with the time of Sodom and Gomorrah: “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:38-39).