The President of the Republic returned the law on euthanasia to Parliament without passing

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, this Wednesday vetoed a fourth parliamentary decree decriminalizing physician-assisted death, asking parliament to clarify two points.

“I specifically ask the Assembly of the Republic to consider the issue of clarifying who determines the patient’s physical inability to self-administer lethal drugs, and who should provide medical supervision during the act of euthanasia,” the head of state wrote in a letter addressed to Parliament.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa argues that “because of this delicacy and given the very brief parliamentary debate on the last two amendments, it seems reasonable to retain all conceptual dilutions, also because of the step taken and its largely original nature in comparative law” .

The Fourth Law of Parliament on Medically Assisted Death was approved in a final global vote on March 31st and, after correcting the final wording, published in Diário da República last Thursday, April 13th.

The note issued by the Presidium of the Republic regarding this veto mentions that in this decision “the President focuses only on the addition made to this new edition, which considers that the patient cannot choose between euthanasia and euthanasia, since he can resort to euthanasia only when he is not physically allowed to practice euthanasia.”

According to the head of state, “as a result of this innovation, it is important to clarify who recognizes and testifies to such an impossibility” and, “on the other hand, it is important to clarify who should supervise euthanasia”, determining “which doctor should intervene in a given situation “.

“The President of the Republic understands that in terms of this delicacy there can be no doubt about its application, therefore he asked the Assembly of the Republic to clarify these two points, especially since this is a decision that is not comparable with the experience of other jurisdictions,” the note says. .

In a letter addressed to the Assembly of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa refers to the fact that the Constitutional Court, when it declared the previous version of the decree on this issue unconstitutional, found it unclear whether “physical, psychological and spiritual suffering is required, or whether one of them will enough to justify resorting to death with medical help.”

“The legislator has now returned to the original wording of the norm, which was limited to referring to suffering of great intensity, without specifying what kind of character it is,” but “decided to go further by changing two other norms related to the relationship between euthanasia and euthanasia,” he emphasizes.

The President of the Republic mentions that the judges of the Constitutional Court voted for Decision No. 2.”

“Now, in this new edition, the patient no longer has the right to choose between simple euthanasia or euthanasia,” the head of state emphasizes.

We are talking about a new rule introduced in the decree, according to which “medical death can occur by euthanasia only when medical suicide is impossible due to the patient’s physical incapacity.”

In addition to this, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlights another change “establishing that the administration of lethal drugs by a doctor or healthcare professional occurs when the patient is physically unable to take them on his own.”

According to the President of the Republic, “this raises the question of who determines such a situation.” In his view, the “no choice between simple suicide or euthanasia” currently introduced also raises “compatibility” issues with the rest of the decree’s wording.

A decree vetoed this Wednesday that regulates the conditions under which medically assisted death is no longer punishable, amending the Penal Code, was approved in Parliament in a final global vote on March 31, with a majority of PS judges, the Liberal Initiative , Left bloc, six deputies from the SDP and the only deputies from PAN and Livre.

The majority of the SDP, Chega, PKP and five PS deputies voted against him. Two abstained, one Socialist deputy and one Social Democrat.

This is the fourth decree passed by Parliament prohibiting, under certain conditions, the death penalty by medical intervention.

It is proposed that this may occur legally “by the decision of a person, of legal age, whose will is actual 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, when they are practiced or assisted medical workers”.

When the first legislative initiatives on this matter appeared, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, a practicing Catholic, advocated a long and wide public discussion, but he placed himself outside the discussion, relegating his role to the completion of the parliamentary legislative process.

Having received the first parliamentary ruling on this matter, it sent it to the Constitutional Court, which in March 2021 declared it unconstitutional due to insufficient regulatory compaction.

In November 2021, before the second decree, the head of state applied a political veto, considering that it contained contradictory language.

Already in the current legislature, having received a third decree from parliament, on January 30 he sent it to the Constitutional Court, which declared it unconstitutional.