This Friday, the Assembly of the Republic approved the decriminalization of medically assisted death in a final global vote for the third time with a majority vote from PS, IL, BE and individual MPs from PAN and Livre, as well as six parliamentarians. from PSD.
They voted against the Chega and PKP parliamentary groups.
The PS bench had six votes against, from deputies Joaquim Barreto, Pedro Segonho, Sobrinho Teixeira, Romualda Fernandez, Cristina Souza and Maria Joao Castro. The socialist José Carlos Alexandrino also abstained.
On the PSD bench, deputies Catarina Rocha Ferreira, Hugo Carvalho, Isabelle Meireles, Andre Coelho Lima, Sofia Matos and Adao Silva voted in favor. Three Social Democrats abstained: Lina López, Jorge Salgueiro Méndez and Ofelia Ramos.
A total of 210 deputies attended the plenary session.
The decree is currently being finalized and has yet to be reviewed by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who can adopt it, veto it or apply to the Constitutional Court for a preventive review of the text.
At the end of the voting, applause was heard from the deputies who voted “for”.
The galleries were attended by former Bloc de Esquerda deputy José Manuel Purez, who had participated in previous legislative processes on the subject.
The initiative is based on bills from PS, IL, BE and PAN and was approved by specialty in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees on Wednesday after three postponements.
The text establishes that “non-punishable medically assisted death” occurs “by the decision of an older person, whose will is current and repeated, serious, free and clear, in a situation of great suffering, with a final injury of extreme severity, or a serious and incurable disease, if practiced or medical professionals help.
This time, compared to the previous decree, the deputies removed the requirement for a “deadly disease”.
There is an article in the text that defines several concepts, among them “suffering of great strength”, which is defined as “physical, psychological and spiritual suffering resulting from a severe and incurable illness or final injury.” of extreme severity, of great intensity, persistent, uninterrupted or constant, and considered intolerable to the person himself.
“Serious and incurable disease” is defined as “a life-threatening disease in an advanced and progressive phase, incurable and irreversible, causing severe suffering.”
“Extreme terminal injury” is defined in the text as “a serious, permanent, and largely disabling injury that places a person in a position of dependence on a third party or technical support to perform basic daily activities with a very high certainty or likelihood, that such restrictions will persist over time without the possibility of elimination or significant improvement.”
The text of the replacement also establishes a minimum period of two months from the start of the procedure for its implementation, with the obligatory provision of psychological support as well.
In the previous legislature, the decriminalization, under certain conditions, of violent death, the amendment of the Penal Code, gathered an overwhelming majority in Parliament, but was subject to two vetoes by the President of the Republic: for the first time since the Constitutional Court, failed after Marcelo Rebelo de Souza’s request for an inspection. For the second time, the decree was again rejected by the president after a political veto.
The head of state vetoed the decree on November 26, stressing that the new text uses different expressions when defining the type of necessary diseases, and argued that the legislator must choose between “only a serious disease”, “a serious and incurable disease” and “incurable and fatal disease”.
In a footnote justifying the veto, Marcelo wrote that in case the Assembly of the Republic wanted to “really drop the requirement that the disease be fatal, and therefore extend the permission for death by physician” – what happens in the text today is approved – will choose “a more radical or decisive point of view”, and wonders if this is in line with “the dominant sentiment in Portuguese society”.
This Wednesday, Marcelo only ensured that he would make a quick legal decision when he received the document in Belém, pointing to Christmas as the likely date.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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