“Lots of hope and confidence.” This is how Nuno Melo summarized the outcome of yesterday’s meeting with the Ombudsman, to whom a CDS delegation led by him presented its concerns about the euthanasia bill passed by parliament a month ago.
At the end of the morning, Nuno Melo and Paulo Núncio (President and Vice-President of the CDS respectively), Isabel Galriça Neto (medical specialist palliative care and spokesperson for the CDS) and João Pedro Tavares (President of the Christian Association of Entrepreneurs and Managers) ) left the building on Rua do Pau da Bandeira with a sense of mission accomplished. “Our arguments were received with all the dignity the subject warrants,” the center leader assured in statements to DN.
And if ombudswoman Maria Lúcia Amaral has not committed herself to any decision, she will certainly have to carefully analyze Paulo Otero’s arguments to justify the CDS’s claim that it is essential that the law be sent to the Constitutional Court, because successive inspections .
The centrists believe there are “inconsistencies, illegalities and serious lack of definitions” in the decree, passed by parliament with votes in favor of IL, BE, PAN, Livre and the majority of PS deputies and against the majority of the social-democratic parliamentarians, van de Genoen and the PCP. And above all, that the presuppositions of euthanasia and the opening of doors to assisted suicide affect “the sanctity of human life”. As this is a matter close to the heart of the CDS, Nuno Melo “could not fail to act with the required urgency”. “We are the first political party to come up with this request,” he emphasizes.
The CDS does not and cannot have a parliamentary seat at our discretion resorting to the Constitution, for which he did everything in his power not to be left behind in a matter which, the MEP also defends, “has an obvious political dimension, but is above all a question of civilization”. After hearing her arguments and handing Maria Lúcia Amaral the document that collects the arguments supporting the claim to inspect the constitutionality of the euthanasia law, the CDS believes that it has now taken an essential step so that “a law that the rights of fundamental” by that body, whose current ombudsman was once a counselor and vice president out of curiosity (2007-2016).
“Through the ombudsman, the CDS is the first party to follow up on an effective initiative to provoke a decision by the Constitutional Court on the new law,” Nuno Melo further emphasized to DN, promising to continue efforts in a battle that aims to “preserve a greater good and protect fundamental rights”.
For the centrist leader, regardless of what the judges understand, it is important that there is “a definition” of the position on the legislation that defines the goals of medically assisted death. “Especially because there are aspects of this law that never deserved analysis by the TC”, which only studied earlier versions, always at the initiative of the President of the Republic.
The law was voted on for the first time in 2021 and was deemed unconstitutional, having subsequently undergone substantial changes”, which still did not reassure Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, which led him to re-certify the diploma in January this year for review And for a second time, the law was rejected by the judges of Ratton Palace, who held that the diploma maintained several unconstitutional articles and contained an “unacceptable lack of definition” as to its exact scope.
Third, Marcelo chose to veto it directly and ask for clarification, namely in relation to assisted suicide, but a month later, in May, he was forced to enact it at Parliament’s insistence . The assumptions are therefore significantly different today from those that last had to be analyzed by the jurors at the beginning of this year.
In the 22-page document containing the arguments of the CDS, now in the hands of the Ombudsman, “there are several aspects on which the Constitution has not yet had the opportunity to examine”, the leader of the center emphasizes, recalling that the Autonomous Regions were ignored throughout the process and that the law maintains “vague and indeterminate concepts” that raise many questions, in addition to the social consequences that euthanasia can bring, namely the disinvestment in a solid network of palliative care.
“Paulo Otero’s argument, which was handed over to the Ombudsman, is a sustained legal piece of unassailable consistency,” he adds, expressing his optimism about the possibility of Maria Lúcia Amaral agreeing to bring the law to the constitutional to send advice.
Source: DN
