The Portuguese Parliament has approved Friday by a large majority the law that proposes the decriminalization of euthanasia, in a third attempt that aims to save the suspicions of the Portuguese president, the conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has already stopped two previous attempts.
The reform had the favorable vote of the majority of the representatives of the left-wing parties, as well as six deputies of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which gave its members a free vote. There was also an abstention from the ranks of the Socialist Party (PS) of the Prime Minister, António Costa.
The PSD, the main opposition party, unsuccessfully demanded the calling of a referendum so that the citizens could pronounce themselves at the ballot box on an issue that has been the subject of controversy for years, within a controversial plenary session in which the right accused the president of the Assembly of being biased.
The text now passes to Rebelo de Sousa’s desk, who has the power to enact it, veto it or consult the Constitutional Court. The president, who has already expressed his misgivings on previous occasions about the alleged ambiguity of the initiative, has promised to make a decision in a matter of weeks, according to the RTP channel.
The law authorizes assisted death in the case of persons of legal age with «serious and incurable» illnesses or «definitive injuries of extreme gravity». It establishes a minimum period of two months between the beginning and the end of the process and obliges the intervention of a medical professional.
