Ovidio Gonzalez was suffering from terminal throat cancer and said he had been suffering unbearable pain.
Colombia's Catholic Church has said euthanasia is morally unacceptable and it has threatened to close its hospitals across the country.
Colombia is one of the few countries in the world, and the only one in Latin America, where euthanasia is allowed.
Assisted suicide was approved by the Constitutional Court in the 1990s. But no procedures had been performed because the measure had not been regulated.
It was only in May that the health ministry intervened and issued a set of guidelines for hospitals.
Mr Gonzalez died in a clinic in the western city of Pereira, after a legal battle.
His son Julio Cesar is a cartoonist with one of Colombia's top newspapers, El Tiempo.
"My father received the news [that the procedure had been approved] with relief," said Mr Gonzalez, better known by his pen name Matador, or The Killer.
"It is a pity that it had to be like that. My dad deserved to go with less publicity," he added.
Euthanasia is highly controversial in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.
Critics also point out that the measure has not been voted by Congress.

Those held in a series of raids in the capital Kuala Lumpur were mainly from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, officials said.
Machines to make fake passports and to forge Malaysian immigration documents were among the items seized.
Security in the city is being tightened up ahead of the Southeast Asian Games which begin in just over a week's time.
Monday's raids saw police break down doors and lead scores of people away in handcuffs to waiting buses. They were taken to police stations for investigation and screening.
Authorities said they were targeting anyone with missing or fraudulent travel documents or who was believed to be affiliated with terror groups in Syria and Iraq.
"We will detect and take action against foreigners suspected of having links with terrorists, especially those involved in activities in Syria," police counter-terror official Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, said, quoted by Free Malaysia Today.
Officers were also equipped with devices to detect radioactive materials, police said, although no such items were found.

Construction bosses at the new Queensferry Crossing have come up with a plan by using nearby cranes to install temporary toilets at the top of each of its 206m (676ft) towers.
The move has prompted onlookers to ask if they are now the highest toilets in the country.
There are about 150 people working on each tower and, of those, a maximum of 12 people work at the very top of the tower at any given time.
Each tower has a barge at the base with a number of male and female toilets and washrooms and canteens.
The additional temporary toilets on the tower were installed when the towers got to about 120m (394ft) above sea level.
Robert Adam, aerial photographer with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) - the new public body formed by bringing together Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland - was flying over the Firth of Forth recently when he spotted the toilets hundreds of feet above the water.
He said: "The aerial survey team at HES record all aspects of the historic landscape, from architecture to archaeology.
"We've been recording the new Forth crossing since they began building it, and this isn't the first toilet we've photographed - but it's probably the highest."
A Transport Scotland spokesman said the Queensferry Crossing was one of the biggest construction projects Scotland had ever seen, directly employing over 1,200 people.
He said: "When open to traffic at the end of this year, it will be tallest bridge in the UK and the longest bridge of its type in the world.
"The project is on time and under budget thanks in large part to the efforts of a workforce facing often extreme weather conditions at great heights over the Firth of Forth.
"Taking all this into account, providing a toilet only seems fair.
"In all seriousness, health and safety is the absolute priority on the project and a fundamental part of that is providing appropriate welfare facilities for workers whatever their location."

The Millers, who were relegated to League One on 1 April, are looking to end a run of 10 successive defeats.
Birmingham City could be without striker Clayton Donaldson because of a knee injury.
Full-back Josh Dacres-Cogley has an ankle problem while centre-back Michael Morrison remains the only long-term absentee.
A 79-year old Colombian man has become the first person in the country to die legally by euthanasia.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
More than 400 people have been detained in a counter-terrorism operation in Malaysia, authorities say.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
What do you do when you are building the highest bridge in the UK but the tower you are working on gets so tall it would take you ages to get to the toilets at the bottom?
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Rotherham midfielders Lee Frecklington (knee and calf) and Tom Adeyemi (calf) could be fit to return.