Anticipated wills in Colombia since Resolution 1051

Abstract

The anticipated will is one of the most powerful instruments for the protection of the right of people to make autonomous decisions about their body and their health, specifically when they have lost their ability to reason or express their desires, as is the case with some scenarios at the end of life. The anticipated will allows people to project their autonomy over time.

In Colombia, the right to subscribe to the document of anticipated will appears for the first time in the Law 1733 of 2014, “which regulates palliative care services for the integral management of patients with terminal, chronic, degenerative and irrever- sible diseases”; Subsequently, in the Resolution 1216 of April 20, 2015, regarding the guidelines for the organization and functioning of committees to give effect to the right to die with dignity. However, it did not mean that there was previously a legal vacuum in this regard, because the anticipated will has similarity with informed consent, as affirmed by the Constitutional Court in the Judgment C-233 of 2014. Therefore, the anticipated wills are found within the extensive constitutional, ju- risprudential and regulatory framework that exists on the subject in the country.