President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has, for the second time, vetoed a Bill to allow physician-assisted death in Portugal. The Bill aims to to amend the country’s Criminal Code to allow doctors to help terminally ill patients to end their lives.
In rejecting the Bill, Sousa wrote to the president of Portugal’s Assembly highlighting two paths for expanding medically-assisted death. One path, he said, could follow the European legal system, permitting assisted death for patients who do not suffer from a fatal disease. The other could follow the American system, where some states decriminalise assisted death only for patients suffering from terminal illness.
According a report in Jurist, Sousa also noted that the Bill included contradictory language, providing that a person qualifying for assisted death must have a “fatal disease”. However, it also provided that a person with an “incurable disease” or “serious disease” may qualify for assisted death. Sousa asked Portugal’s Assembly to state what type of disease (fatal, incurable, or serious) the Bill required.
He added that if a fatal disease were no longer required, then the Assembly should re-evaluate the requirements. Sousa also opined that the different disease requirements correspond to the value of life and free self-determination in Portuguese society.
Portugal’s Assembly first approved the Bill in January, passing it in a 136–78 vote. However, it ultimately failed to become law. The Bill required two or three intervening doctors to assess the patient’s wishes, and the option would only be available for citizens and legal residents of Portugal aged 18 or older. Sousa received the Bill and had 20 days to approve or deny.
He chose to refer it to the Constitutional Court, which held that permitting assisted death for a “definitive injury of extreme severity according to scientific consensus” was unconstitutional. Subsequently, the Assembly amended the Bill. The Assembly will probably need to amend it yet again to receive Sousa’s approval.
Jurist article – Portugal president vetoes bill to legalize physician-assisted death (Open access)
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