Yolanda Chaparro

Yolanda Chaparro was a 71-year-old Colombian woman diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Following her diagnosis in 2020, she decided to request access to euthanasia. However, medical institutions rejected her request on the grounds that she was not yet in a "terminal state"—a requirement interpreted as a fatal prognosis within six months.

Yolanda was the first person in Colombia to publicly speak out against this requirement, and she did so courageously: she was unwilling to wait until her body had completely deteriorated for her decision to be respected. With the support of DescLAB, she filed a "tutela action" (a constitutional legal challenge) to defend her right to make decisions regarding her life and death. Her story sparked a national debate on autonomy and dignity. She passed away in 2021, before her case could be resolved by the Constitutional Court.

Her story helped shed light on the cruelty of requiring extreme physical deterioration to access euthanasia, and it contributed to the Constitutional Court’s decision, months later, to eliminate the "terminal illness" requirement.