The Portuguese president, the conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, opposed his veto to the law that decriminalizes euthanasia, which had already been changed by Parliament before the reformulations of the Constitutional Court, the presidency announced on Monday.
“The President of the Republic forwards without promulgation to the Assembly of the Republic the text of the law on assisted death, which includes euthanasia and medically assisted suicide,” the presidency said in a statement.
The head of State, a fervent Catholic and professor of law, supported his decision on the need to explain the use of medically assisted death in the case of “fatal”, “incurable” or simply “serious” disease, of the second version of the text. sent by Parliament.
The first version of the law was approved by a large majority of the deputies in January 2021, but President Rebelo de Sousa brought it before the Constitutional Court, which (although he did not oppose the general principle of assisted death) considered that the text he started from concepts that were too imprecise.
The text with the changes suggested by the Court was voted in early November, the day after the dissolution of Parliament for the rejection of the state budget project for 2022 of the socialist executive, which has been in power since 2015 with the support of the radical left. .
The Portuguese head of state announced the call for early legislative elections for January 30, ending a term that began in February 2020.
If Parliament were in full office, the majority on the left could override the presidential veto by voting for the same text a second time
In Europe, euthanasia is legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Spain. In South America, only Colombia allows active euthanasia.
