The PS government will not regulate the euthanasia law and has decided to include the issue in the transition file for the executive body resulting from the elections of March 10, 2024, it was announced on Friday.
In response to a query from the Lusa agency, the Ministry of Health stated that “the process of regulating the law [da morte medicamente assistida] is under development and will be an integral part of the transition file.”
The euthanasia law was promulgated in May by the President of the Republic, as required by the Constitution, days after Parliament confirmed the diploma vetoed by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in late April.
When asked on Friday about the executive’s decision, the Health Minister explained that this is a very complex process and that “it would quickly become a regulatory error”, no matter how important the law is.
“Just look at how many years it has lasted in the Assembly of the Republic and its regulation is not exempt from complexity, nor from the need to make changes, nor from the need for debate,” said Manuel Pizarro, speaking to journalists on the sidelines. of the 26th Congress of the National Association of Doctors taking place in Vila Nova de Gaia, adding that the process “will really have to wait for the next political cycle”.
After a long legislative process, the euthanasia law was finally published in the Government Gazette in May and came into effect 30 days after the regulation. This law should, among other things, establish the model of the clinical file for requests for medically assisted death and the final model. medical report, and which must be completed within 90 days according to the diploma.
This is the first Portuguese law in this area, which stipulates that “medically assisted death can only take place by euthanasia when medically assisted suicide is impossible due to the physical incapacity of the patient”.
In the new law, which amends the Criminal Code, “a non-criminal, medically assisted death is considered a decision of the person himself, an adult, whose will is current and repeated, serious, free and informed, in a situation of suffering of great intensity, with definitive injury of extreme severity or a serious and incurable disease, when practiced or assisted by healthcare professionals”.
Medically assisted suicide is defined as the “administration of lethal drugs by the patient himself, under medical supervision”, and euthanasia as the “administration of lethal drugs by a physician or health professional duly qualified for that purpose”.
The diploma is the result of the fourth decree approved by Parliament to decriminalize medically assisted death under certain conditions, after Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa sent the first decree to the Constitutional Court in February 2021, vetoing the second, in November of the same year, and the third was also sent for preventive inspection in January.
The two submissions to the Constitutional Court led to vetoes for unconstitutionality, and in April, faced with the fourth decree, the President of the Republic vetoed it, but rejected the doubts about its constitutionality, pointing out only two points ” a problem of accuracy”. specifically.
Although the law has been promulgated, it may still be subject to successive inspections by the Constitutional Court, which does not prevent its entry into force. And it can be requested by the President of the Republic, the President of the Assembly of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Ombudsman of Justice, the Attorney General of the Republic or by one-tenth of the deputies (23 out of 230), among other entities.
In November, a group of PSD deputies submitted a request for successive inspection of the law to the Constitutional Court (TC), in a request signed by 56 deputies, more than 70% of the bench.
Source: DN
