This law will not apply to foreigners coming to Portugal for assisted suicide. (Representative)
Lisbon:
After a long battle, Portugal on Friday joined a handful of countries around the world in passing a law legalizing euthanasia for people suffering from severe pain and terminal diseases.
The issue has divided the Catholic country and seen strong opposition from conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a devout churchgoer.
Under its provisions, people over the age of 18 will be allowed to request aid in dying if they are seriously ill and in excruciating pain.
It will only cover people suffering from “permanent” and “intolerable” pain until they are deemed mentally fit to make such a decision.
The law will only apply to citizens and legal residents and will not apply to foreigners coming into the country seeking assisted suicide.
The Euthanasia Bill was approved by Parliament four times in the last three years but was sent back each time for constitutional review due to opposition from the President.
The definitive version of the law was adopted on Friday with the support of the governing Socialists, who hold an absolute majority in the chamber.
“We are ratifying a law that has already been approved by an overwhelming majority several times,” said Socialist lawmaker Isabel Moreira, a strong advocate of legalizing euthanasia.
The President now has a week to implement the new law. Portuguese media said it could come into effect by autumn.
“We have finally reached the end of a long battle,” Moreira told AFP earlier this week.
the debate continues
Rebelo de Sousa vetoed earlier bills because of “highly undefined concepts” and later said that the language used to describe terminal conditions remained contradictory and needed to be clarified.
The new version of the law now provides that euthanasia is authorized only in cases where “medically assisted suicide is impossible due to the physical incapacitation of the patient”.
Rebelo de Sousa asked lawmakers to specify who would “verify” whether a patient was physically incapacitated for assisted suicide, but lawmakers this time refused to modify the text.
Katarina Martins, leader of the far-left bloc, said the questions raised by the president could be addressed through implementing decrees.
Rebelo de Sousa himself said that the approval of the law “was not a great drama” and did not give rise to “constitutional problems”.
The debate on assisted dying in Portugal is far from over.
“The adoption of this law has been relatively quick compared to other large countries,” said Paulo Santos, a member of the pro-euthanasia group Right to Die with Dignity.
He warned that a large number of doctors could raise moral objections to euthanasia, as they did to abortion in 2007.
“There is a good chance that euthanasia will cause even stronger resistance,” he told AFP.
For their part, critics of medically assisted dying expressed regret that the issue had not been put to a referendum and hoped that opposition representatives would once again ask the Constitutional Court to look into the bill.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are permitted in only a few countries, including the Benelux countries and Portugal’s neighboring Spain.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)