La Lechuga (The Lettuce)

With the aim of warming up the debate on the extremely controversial topic of the right to a dignified death, the non-for-profit association For the Right to Die with Dignity (DMD), sponsored by the ESRU Foundation, presented one single showing of the black humor and disturbing play La Lechuga, which addresses from different viewpoints what a family lives when a close relative becomes terminally ill.

This presentation of La Lechuga was declared as the official beginning of the activities prior to the World Federation of Societies for the Right to Die (WFRtDS) Congress which will have Mexico City as its seat, and DMD as its host association; the Congress will take place from October 27 to 31, 2020, in Mexico City under the name: Options and Dignity at the End of Life: A Bioethical Approach.

“A great deal of dialogue and debate concerning death is needed. Mexicans don’t know the many available options they have when they face a death scenario; likewise, a lot of doctors ignore the existence and scope of palliative care, and even the patients don’t know those options and thus don’t request and benefit of them… and this doesn’t pretend to promote the direct request for euthanasia or assisted death, but rather to disseminate and make known other options, such as palliative care. That is the very purpose of the next WFRtDS Congress: to establish as the focus of the debates all the options available when someone faces death so that, with the knowledge of all those options and the use of his/her full mental capacity, that person can decide individually what a Worthy Death he/she can have,” explained Dr. Amparo Espinosa Rugarcía, DMD president and founder, regarding the purpose of the Congress to be held next year.