Portugal: Parliament votes again in favor of euthanasia

This law is the third text to be adopted by Portuguese deputies in two years, but the first under the current legislature. In fact, two bills on euthanasia were passed respectively in January and November 2021, but their implementation was stalled after a vote.

In the first case, the Portuguese Constitutional Court considered the conditions for the application of euthanasia laid down in the text to be unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, the second text was rejected by the President of the Republic, due to remaining legal doubts. In each case, the lack of oversight and oversight of this exception to the killing ban was the reason for the intervention.

Far from responding to the concerns raised by the first two laws, this new text on the contrary seems to reinforce them: the terms of the law are already more comprehensive than before.

Thus, the “unbearable” character of suffering is no longer required in the patient, only “extreme” suffering is sufficient.

Similarly, the criterion associated with the presence of “fatal disease” is replaced by the criterion of “critical illness”.

Finally, euthanasia is no longer seen as an act of “expecting” the death of a patient already at the end of his life, as it was before: it is considered here, for a physician, as the fact that he is voluntarily giving death to anyone who asks for it.

Despite the conviction of Belgium last October by the European Court of Human Rights for lack of oversight of the practice of euthanasia (in this case, with regard to monitoring suffix), this Portuguese law seems to be taking the path of widespread legalization of euthanasia.

However, many Portuguese jurists and constitutionalists question the terms of the law.

Hence, its broad nature may lead to a new obstruction of the entry into force of the law, either through a veto by the President of the Republic, or through a decision of unconstitutionality drafted by the Constitutional Court.