Chile leader visits ailing 14 year-old who wants to end her life
Chile's President Michelle Bachelet on Saturday visited a 14-year-old girl suffering from cystic fibrosis who made a heart-wrenching video appeal to be allowed to end her life. Valentina Maureira had addressed Bachelet personally in the message, which she recorded with a smartphone and uploaded to YouTube from her hospital bed without her parents knowledge. Maureira is in "stable" condition from cystic fibrosis, an incurable genetic disorder that attacks the lungs and other vital organs, making it difficult to breath and causing a host of other symptoms. Her message has been viewed thousands of times on social networks, igniting debate over euthanasia in Chile, where it is forbidden by law.
