‘Del otro lado del jardín’ by Carlos Framb

On October 20, 2007, after assisting in his 82-year-old mother Luzmila Alzate’s death at home with an overdose of morphine and sleeping pills, the Colombian poet Carlos Framb attempted suicide but failed. Instead, he woke up at a hospital to find himself detained and accused of aggravated homicide. A legal saga ensued, with Framb’s charges being eventually lessened to assisted suicide and, in July of 2008, dropped by the Superior Tribunal of Medellín. Framb’s 2009 memoir Del otro lado del jardín does more than describe his months of legal proceedings: it also recounts his mother’s religious upbringing and the slow process of persuading her that assisted dying could be a merciful rather than sinful act. The book portrays the mother-son friendship and discusses the deaths of close ones that serve as points of reference; these include Luzmila’s own mother, who died of an excruciating skin cancer, and Framb’s friend Ebel Botero, who died while drafting ‘A Brief History of Suicide’ – an essay that Framb himself recreates and presents as a book inside the book. This nested structure and a mix of voices enrich Framb’s first-person account, resulting in a hybrid text with poems, correspondence, dialogues, and excerpts of court proceedings – including an edited transcription of the appellate court decision that eventually absolved Framb. The memoir also serves as a snapshot of the debate on assisted dying in Colombia in 2009, consolidating the position of prominent associations and influential names; as Framb reports in the book, he received various gestures of support while in jail, such as a letter from the Corporación Cultural Estanislao Zuleta, an organization dedicated to the promotion of democracy and critical thinking, and a phone call from Judge Carlos Gaviria, author of the landmark Sentence C-239-97 that decriminalized euthanasia in Colombia.

In 1997, the Colombian Constitutional Court exempted from wrongdoing any doctors who assisted in the death of free-willing, terminally ill patients, and urged Congress to regulate the topic of dignified death. Although euthanasia was effectively decriminalized, further expansions of the constitutional right-to-die would only be issued as of 2015, through a series of sentences and resolutions. Thus, Framb’s 2007 case fell into a legislative vacuum. Framb knew his action was illegal – aiding in his mother’s death was a prosecutable crime which his own brother Iván could have brought to court, though Iván refused to do so (at the time, assisted suicide was punishable in Colombia with 1-2 years or prison and mercy killing with 1-3 years). As he was not granted bail, Framb spent the first five months of his legal proceedings imprisoned. On April 8, 2008, in a first-instance court decision, the 23rd Penal Court of the Circuit of Medellín absolved Framb from the accusation of aggravated homicide but condemned him for assisted suicide, while ordering Framb’s release. The prosecution appealed, so Framb remained in conditional liberty pending the appellate court decision; only on July 14, 2008, the Superior Tribunal of Medellín unconditionally freed Framb by dropping the accusation of assisted suicide (Sentence 05-001-60-00206-2007-19739). Framb’s case received a lot of exposure and scrutiny, both before and after his memoir was published, being often cited in the media and in legal articles as a reminder of how Colombia still needed to clarify the guidelines for assisted dying. A vocal advocate of self-determination in death, Framb has been invited as a keynote speaker by various organizations, including Derecho a Morir Dignamente Colombia (a member of the World Federation of the Right to Die Societies) in 2009, and the Superior Tribunal of Medellín in 2023. First published in 2009 by Editorial Planeta, Framb’s memoir was republished in 2015 by Aguilar, a Penguin Random House label. A feature film based on Framb’s book and by the same title was launched in October 2024.