Constitutional court veto “could be bill’s death sentence”
Very much like what is happening in the UK, Portugal’s so-called ‘euthanasia law’ is going nowhere. In fact, it is going somewhere – “back into a drawer”, writes Correio da Manhã.
According to CM, since the results of the May 18 elections, parties in favour of the decriminalisation of medically-assisted death (PS Socialists, Iniciativa Liberal, LIVRE, PAN and Bloco de Esquerda) no longer have the number of MPs required to approve a new law, following the latest veto by the Constitutional Court.
This is the 5th time parliamentarians have been thwarted.
Today, the majority of MPs in parliament are those representing AD (the PSD-CDS-PP alliance) which ‘has no interest in reopening the euthanasia debate’, and CHEGA, which is ‘frontally against’ the idea, explains the paper.
The euthanasia law was first approved by parliament in 2021, but it never got beyond that – seeing vetoes by both President Marcelo and then by the Constitutional Court, whose last refusal cited six clauses in the fifth revision of the text.
With Portugal moving firmly to the right, anyone hoping for a breakthrough might have to wait for some time. ND
