Valentina Maureira, a Chilean 14-year-old girl, suffering from cystic fibrosis, posted a video on YouTube asking President Michelle Bachelet to authorize euthanasia for her. The video was posted on Sunday night and rapidly spread on the Internet.
“I urgently request to speak to the President because I’m tired of living with this illness,” claimed the girl. Her older brother died at the age of six from the same disease.
Presidential spokesman Alvaro Elizalde said Thursday that Chilean laws don’t allow to honor Valentina’s request to let her “sleep forever.”
"We have to be completely clear, the current norm, the current law in Chile does not allow the government to agree to a request of this nature," he said.
Elizalde said the health ministry was in contact with Maureira’s family and was providing her psychological assistance as well as medical treatment.
“Right now our therapeutic efforts are aimed at the recovery of her nutritional state and supporting her family,” Andres Castillo, the doctor responsible for the girl’s treatment, said.
Maureira already has undergone five operations. To live a few years more, she needs lung, pancreas and liver transplante. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that affects mostly the lungs and also other organs.
