Ombudsman calls for euthanasia law to be unconstitutional

The Ombudsman has asked the Constitutional Court (CC) to declare the medically assisted death law unconstitutional, it was announced on Tuesday.

Maria Lucia Amaral’s request, published on Tuesday on the Ombudsman’s website, requests “a declaration of the unconstitutionality, with general binding force, of the rules contained in Law No. 22/2023 of May 25, which regulates the conditions under which medically assisted death is not permitted” . punishable and amends the Criminal Code.”

This news was reported by Novo Semanario, recalling that in June the CDS-PP asked the Ombudsman to request a consistent review of the decree from the TC.

In the request, the Ombudsman states that the rule contained in the law “contradicts what is enshrined in the Constitution in paragraph 1 of its article 24.” [A vida humana é inviolável] and in paragraph 1 of Article 26. [A todos são reconhecidos os direitos à identidade pessoal, ao desenvolvimento da personalidade, à capacidade civil, à cidadania, ao bom nome e reputação, à imagem, à palavra, à reserva da intimidade da vida privada e familiar e à proteção legal contra quaisquer formas de discriminação].

Maria Lucia Amaral emphasizes in the statement that the TC has twice ruled and clarified “some of the most fundamental issues” that arise in medically assisted dying, such as “its abstract compatibility with the right to life.”

And among his arguments, he highlights that the law on euthanasia intends to take “a step rare in comparative law” by adopting “regulatory decisions that do not provide sufficient guarantees that (…) they will be presented to those who request assistance in finding real, existing and effective alternatives that justify free choice in maintaining (or not) the original requirement.”

The euthanasia law was adopted on May 16, 2023 by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, but is awaiting a decision after the PS government decided to include the issue in the transition file for the next leader.

This is the first Portuguese law on the subject, which states that “medically assisted death can only occur by euthanasia when medically assisted suicide is not possible due to the physical incapacity of the patient.”

In the new law amending the Criminal Code, “unpunished death with medical assistance is considered to have occurred at the decision of the person himself, an adult, whose will is valid and confirmed, serious, free and conscious, in a situation of suffering of great intensity, accompanied by serious injuries of extreme severity or serious and incurable diseases when practiced or assisted by medical professionals.”

Medically assisted suicide is defined as “the administration of lethal drugs by the patient himself under medical supervision,” and euthanasia is “the administration of lethal drugs by a physician or health care professional qualified for the purpose.”

The diploma was the result of the fourth decree approved by Parliament on the decriminalization of assisted death under certain conditions, after Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa sent the first decree to the Constitutional Court in February 2021, vetoed the second in November of the same year, and the third was also sent for preventive inspection in January.

Two submissions to the TC resulted in vetoes for unconstitutionality, and in April, faced with a fourth decree, the President of the Republic vetoed it but dismissed concerns about constitutionality, citing only a “problem of precision” on two specific points. .

In November, a group of SDP deputies submitted a request to the Labor Committee for a consistent review of the law, which was signed by 56 deputies, that is, more than 70% of the composition.