An acid attack victim who planned to die by euthanasia has changed her mind after talking to Pope Francis.
Consuela Cordoba planned to end her life with a doctor’s help under Colombia’s euthanasia laws, however when she met the Pope to ask permission he refused to give it.
“You are very brave and very pretty,” he told her, prompting her to change her mind on the spot.
Consuela was injured in 2000 when her ex-partner Dagoberto Esuncho threw acid in her face.
“I had perfect teeth, I was very pretty. But now, I’m destroyed,” she said in a 2012 interview.
“I’ve thought about committing suicide. I say to myself, why live? With a life like the one I have, what for?”
She has undergone 87 operations and needs tubes in her nostrils to breathe. She can also over eat liquid food and has to wear a mesh body suit at all times. After she was diagnosed with a brain infection recently, she and her doctor agreed to end her life on September 29.
Before that date, she decided to ask Pope Francis for permission when he visited Colombia last week, and was selected to talk to him.
The two hugged before Consuela asked him whether she could end her life.
“He said ‘no’, he was not going to do it. He told me that I was very brave and very pretty,” she said.
“That changed my life. Now I want to live.
“Dr Gustavo Quinonez was going to give me the injection, but I’m not going to do it because God is going to bring greatness to my life.”
“I am going to tell Dr Gustavo thank you very much for your injection, but it is for another,” she added.
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