In an open letter, a group of more than 100 figures from different areas asked the leaders of all parties running in legislative elections to commit to repealing the euthanasia law.
“Legalizing assisted suicide or euthanasia deeply offends the most basic principles of human dignity and the foundations of our civilization. By making the protection of human life dependent on the disease, everyone has the right to a state that cares and does not kill,” says the open letter to which the Luza agency had access.
The signatories believe that in recent times, “we have seen a deterioration in the state of health care, unable to provide care in particular to the most needy and disadvantaged,” and add: “Suicide and euthanasia are therefore presented as a solution to the problem of lack of health.” care (continuous, palliative, primary, etc.).”
Among the signatories are judges and lawyers such as Afonso Teixeira de Mota and Rui Gomes da Silva, evangelical figures, architects and engineers, economists including António Bagan Felix, and doctors such as Isabel Galriza and Neto and João Queiroz and Melo .
The letter is also signed by those responsible for the Federation for Life and its partners, university professors such as João Cesar das Neves and Teresa Nogueira Pinto, as well as former CDS/PP leader José Ribeiro and Castro.
The euthanasia law was promulgated on May 16, 2023 by the President of the Republic, but is awaiting a decision after the PS government decided to include the issue in the transition file for the executive, which leaves the elections on March 10, 2024.
More than 100 people who signed the letter recall that the legislative processes “took place in the Assembly of the Republic between 2016 and 2023” had “several vicissitudes and were rejected: one of them (in 2018) by the Parliament, and two of them by the Constitutional Court for unconstitutionality, the fourth – Political veto of the President of the Republic.”
Given that “only the arrogance of the cyclical majority in Parliament (now dissolved) dictated the approval of this legislation”, the signatories state that they opposed the various bills “consulted by all the Professional Orders, the six living former Presidents of the Order”. doctors, the Higher Councils of the Ministry of State and the Judiciary, the National Council of Ethics of the Life Sciences.”
The letter also refers to the fact that the law has been criticized by a group representing major religious denominations, palliative care specialists and informal carers, as well as living former presidents of the republic and former heads of government.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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