LISBON (Reuters) – Conservative Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Souza signed legislation decriminalizing euthanasia in the majority Catholic country on Tuesday, after parliament on Friday overturned his four vetoes.
The presidency said in a statement that the president signed the law “as required” by the constitution.
With this, Portugal becomes the sixth country in the European Union to legalize medically assisted death, a measure that the majority of Portuguese have long supported, opinion polls show.
In January 2021, the previous government passed a first bill that would legalize medically assisted death under certain circumstances, but it was opposed by Marcelo Rebelo de Souza due to “excessively undefined concepts”.
After several times, Parliament finally ratified the law on Friday with 129 votes in favour, 81 against and one abstention, without the changes requested by Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, thus eliminating the veto.
However, the main center-right opposition party, the Social Democrats, said it would appeal to the Constitutional Court.
The law states that people will be allowed to seek assistance in the event of death in cases where they find themselves “in a state of great suffering, with very serious permanent injuries or a serious and incurable disease”.
It provides for a period of two months between the acceptance of the application and the procedure itself and makes psychological support mandatory.
(Reporting by Andrei Khalip; French version by Kate Entringer; Editing by Blandine Henault)
