The Portuguese parliament overruled a veto of a long-embattled assisted suicide law on Friday, May 12th, sadly settling the question of assisted suicide in the country.
The bill to allow assisted suicide for adults has passed through the parliament four times in the last three years, but each time it has either been voted down, sent for review by the constitutional court, or vetoed for clarifications of concepts such as “intense suffering.”
AFP reports that conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had sent it back to Parliament this time, asking lawmakers to specify who would “attest” to whether a patient was physically incapable of requesting assisted suicide.
But instead of changing the text, the Socialist Party majority went straight to a second vote and garnered the needed supermajority to override the veto.
Now DeSousa is forced to promulgate it within eight days.
The law specifies that adults with “lasting” and “unbearable” pain can request a legal injection unless deemed not mentally fit to make such a decision.
“We have at last come to the end of a long battle,” Socialist lawmaker Isabel Moreira, who lead the effort on passing the bill, told AFP.
“The adoption of this law has been relatively fast compared with other big countries,” said Paulo Santos, a member of the ‘Right To Die With Dignity,’ also said.
In Europe, only Spain and the Benelux countries allow assisted suicide.
