Legal Conceptualization as Ethical Mediation: The Case of the Right to a Dignified Death in Colombia

This text arises in response to the following question: what is the role of legal concepts in relation to ethical debates that intersect with the use of law? To address this, the right to a dignified death in the Colombian legal context will be taken as a case study. Through a textual analysis of legal norms and documents with theoretical-legal claims, it will be shown that the exercises of conceptual definition in the field of law respond to the operationalization from ethical assessments towards legal instruments. Subsequently, this will be exemplified through the specific utilization of this phenomenon by an ethical standpoint, decidedly committed to the right to a dignified death within the Colombian constitutional framework. To achieve this, examples of authors and corporations that uphold a negative view on euthanasia will be presented. Thus, it will be shown that it is necessary to assume the mediation of legal concepts regarding value judgments and to operationalize the legal contents so that they correspond to the ethics of autonomy and dignified death.