Portugal’s Parliament has again voted in favour of legalising euthanasia, kick-starting a third attempt in just over a year to get the legislation past the President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The country's Constitutional Court and the president have blocked two previous bills passed by lawmakers due to 'unclear wording.' In March 2021, Portugal's top court said the wording of a proposed bill legalising euthanasia was too “imprecise.”
Rebelo de Sousa then vetoed a second parliament-sanctioned bill last November.
The President said further clarification was needed about whether the proposed law would apply only to incurable illnesses, or whether it could be extended to any fatal or serious illness.
At the end of last week, the politicians voted 128-88 with five abstentions in favour of a Socialist Party bill to decriminalise medically assisted dying in Portugal. They will now work to combine four similar proposals into one bill that can this time gain de Sousa’s approval.
The bills will allow a doctor to directly administer fatal drugs to a patient or a patient to administer the lethal drug themselves under medical supervision.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is likely to block the legislation once again, or send it to the Constitutional Court for vetting.
