Former President of the Republic Cavaco Silva believes that the legalization of euthanasia “is not in the spirit of the Constitution”, and argues that the decriminalization of this practice is “another sign of the deterioration of the quality of our democracy.”
In a statement to Rádio Renascença in the week when Parliament votes on projects to legalize death with the help of a doctor, Cavaco Silva also criticizes the Assembly of the Republic’s management of priorities.
“In a country like Portugal, with one of the highest risks of poverty and social exclusion in the European Union and without a palliative care network that disadvantaged patients can access, in Portugal, where poverty is increasing relative to other countries, the priority deputies is to legalize the practice of euthanasia, which allows a doctor to kill another person,” he says.
In the week that Parliament votes on a new text legalizing death by physician, the former President of the Republic said he had no doubts about the unconstitutionality of the euthanasia law: “The legalization of euthanasia is not in the spirit of the Constitution.” .
After a specialty vote and a final global vote in plenary session, the law is sent to Belém for evaluation by the President of the Republic. In the last legislature, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa vetoed the diploma twice, one of them for being unconstitutional.
Cavaco Silva warns that “allowing a doctor to legally kill another person is an extremely dangerous leap into the unknown,” stating: “In some European countries, there have been reports of pressure on the elderly and sick to accept that they are being killed. the most fragile.”
Voting on the specialty diploma will take place on Wednesday at the Commission on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees after it was postponed until October.
A meeting of the leadership of the PS bench, the party with an absolute majority in parliament, is scheduled for this Tuesday, during which the socialists will have to decide whether they still submit amendments to the replacement text on euthanasia, the specialty voting time scheduled for Wednesday.