The PSD deputies who filed a request on Thursday for successive inspection of the law decriminalizing euthanasia are asking the Constitutional Court (TC) for a “global and detailed” analysis of the law, which they say has not yet been carried out.
“This request for access is primarily for reasons of conscience,” said the first on a list of 56 subscribers to the PSD bank, deputy João Paulo Barbosa de Melo.
The deputy defended that it is essential that a law “of this importance and this delicate nature, on a sensitive and definitive issue”, is analyzed by all institutions, since even those who voted for the law want it to be passed with total “appropriateness” is applied. legal certainty’.
“The Assembly of the Republic has already expressed itself several times, the President of the Republic has already made his corrections several times, we believe that the TC is missing. The TC has never spoken out on this law in a global manner. has spoken out on aspects that the president decided to ask,” Barbosa de Melo considered.
The subject has already been the target of two political vetoes by the Head of State and two vetoes due to unconstitutionalities issued by the Constitutional Court, in response to requests for preventive inspection by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
“There is one step that has not been taken: assessing the constitutionality of the law in a global and detailed sense,” reinforced the deputy.
The main purpose of the request from the group of PSD deputies, including parliamentary leader Joaquim Miranda Sarmento as the latest subscriber, is to ask the TC to assess the constitutionality of the legal regulation of euthanasia itself, which they consider to be contrary to ‘the principle of the inviolability of the human rights of life and the absence of a fundamental right to a self-determined death”.
However, if this is considered constitutional, deputies say they have done “exhaustive work” on the decree published in May and are also asking for the evaluation of about twenty rules that they consider unconstitutional.
“We wanted to take great care with this request so that it would not just be a media outburst, but something consistent,” he said.
Despite the fact that the PSD had requested urgency in the assessment, the deputy emphasized that the successive inspection “does not interrupt the deadlines”, referring to “the times of the court” and the government, which must implement the regulations within a period of three months after the assessment should have determined. the date of publication in Diário da República, on May 25.
“Everything is still on the side of the government, which has to regulate the law and has not yet done so (…) There is a failure on the side of the government which has not yet done so, there will be people are those who have not yet done so. the other side wondering if this is all constitutional as it is”suggested, considering this regulatory delay strange, albeit frequent (the law won’t go into effect until 30 days after this step).
The delegates hope that the TC’s analysis will reveal some aspects of the law that need correction ‘or that, if there is reason for the global issue, the law will be sent back for a new diploma to be drawn up. “.
Everyone who signed the request voted against the decriminalization of euthanasia when it was debated in parliament, but not everyone who voted against it on the PSD bench endorsed the request.
“Not everyone agrees on every line and every paragraph and some are less comfortable with some parts of the text,” he said, considering the total of 56 signatures a “good result” that exceeds 70% of the bank. more than the 23 required to submit the application to the TC.
Asked about the possibility of a referendum, Deputy Barbosa de Melo was of the opinion that this is “a non-issue” at the moment and that “the next step is whether or not the law is unconstitutional”, de-dramatizing that this group of Deputies have more constitutional doubts than what Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in the past on this issue.
“It’s another sovereign body,” he said.
In addition to the inviolability of human life, the delegates want the definition of the concepts of serious and incurable disease, without reference to terminal nature, to be evaluated in the light of the constitutional prohibition on the lack of protection of human life (without reference to the terminal nature), the powers of the evaluation committee (without the intervention of the court), the requirements for conscientious objectors or the period of five working days for the decision, and many others.
Source: DN
