Former President of the Republic Cavaco Silva believes that the legalization of euthanasia “does not respect the spirit of the Constitution” and argues that the decriminalization of this practice is “another sign of the deterioration of the quality of our democracy”.
In a statement to Rádio Renascença in the week when parliament votes on projects to legalize medically assisted death, Cavaco Silva also criticizes the management of priorities by the Assembly of the Republic.
“In a country like Portugal, with one of the highest risks of poverty and social exclusion in the European Union and without a network of palliative care to which patients from disadvantaged families have access, in a Portugal where impoverishment is greater than in other countries, the deputies’ priority is the legalization of the practice of euthanasia, authorizing a doctor to kill another person”he says.
In the week when parliament votes on the replacement text legalizing medically assisted death, the former president of the republic says he has no doubts about the unconstitutionality of the euthanasia law: “The legalization of euthanasia does not respect the spirit of the constitution”.
After a vote on the specialty and after the final general vote in the plenary, the law goes to Belém, for evaluation by the President of the Republic. During the last legislature, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa vetoed the diploma twice, one of which was precisely because it was unconstitutional.
Cavaco Silva warns that “legally authorizing a doctor to kill someone else is an extremely dangerous leap into the unknown”, stating that “in some European countries there have been reports of pressure on the elderly and the sick to accept being killed. the sick are also the most vulnerable”.
The vote on the diploma in the specialty will take place on Wednesday in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, after being postponed in the month of October.
Next Tuesday, the meeting of the leadership of the PS bank – the party that has the absolute majority of deputies in parliament – is scheduled, in which the socialists will have to decide whether to table any amendments to the replacement text on medically accompanied death, the voting moment in the specialty, scheduled for Wednesday.
Source: DN
