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News > Portugal

Portugal's Parliament Decriminalizes Euthanasia

  • Image of the interior of the Parliament, Lisbon, Portugal, 2021.

    Image of the interior of the Parliament, Lisbon, Portugal, 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @correio_dopovo

Published 29 January 2021
Opinion

If President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa ratifies the decision, Portugal will be the seventh country in the world to allow assisted death.

Portugal’s Parliament on Friday passed a law decriminalizing euthanasia. This happened with 136 votes in favor, 78 against, and 4 abstentions.

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The Law is "totally pluralistic and respects whoever chooses the day of his or her death with the help of third parties", Socialist lawmaker Isabel Moreira said

The rule establishes that the applicant for assisted death must be of legal age, not have mental problems, be in a situation of "long-lasting and unbearable" suffering, and have an incurable disease or injury.

The citizen's decision will be evaluated by an expert committee and can only be carried out with the assistance of professionals from the public health system.

This law was passed with the votes of communist, socialist, social democratic, environmentalist, and liberal lawmakers. Instead, the new rule was rejected by lawmakers linked to far-right and religious groups, one of which called the law a "mistake because it allows the killing of lives that could be saved."

Over the last year, the Portuguese Parliament discussed five euthanasia-related bills amid mobilizations against the decriminalization of assisted death. Due to the pandemic, however, today's discussion proceeded without demonstrations.

If President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa ratifies the decision, Portugal will be the seventh country in the world to allow assisted death. Previously, euthanasia was also approved in Spain, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Canada, and Colombia.

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