By Miguel Angel Gutierrez

MEXICO CITY, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Lawmakers in Mexico City approved a law on Tuesday to allow terminally ill people to refuse treatment, the latest challenge to the church in the capital of the world's second-largest Roman Catholic nation.

Mexico City's leftist-dominated Congress voted unanimously in favor of a bill enabling patients suffering incurable illnesses to sign a notarized document suspending treatment if medicines can only prolong life and not provide a cure.

Families of terminally ill patients who are paralyzed but can still express themselves would be able to sign the order to cease treatment if two witnesses are present. Patients can also donate their organs.

"As well as favoring death without unnecessary suffering when death is inevitable, the law gives hope to those who need an organ donor," said leftist lawmaker Victor Hugo Cirigo.

The bill must be signed into law by Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.

There was no official reaction yet from the church, but it vehemently opposes policies that it fears would be steps toward allowing euthanasia.

The Mexican capital, one of the world's largest cities, has become a vanguard of liberalism in Latin America by backing gay civil unions and legalizing abortion this year.

Lawmakers in April voted to legalize abortion in the first three months of pregnancy. The issue has split Mexico, a conservative Roman Catholic nation of 107 million people.

The Vatican's second-highest ranking doctrinal official, Archbishop Angelo Amato, has denounced abortion and euthanasia as "terrorism with a human face."

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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