The vote, in the specialty (article by article), of the euthanasia law was postponed again this Wednesday at the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, but PS bank management sources assure the DN that it remains the intention, despite this new postponement , finalize the final adoption in plenary by the end of the year.
This Wednesday’s postponement was for a week – that is, the vote that was to take place will take place next Wednesday. If there is a clear majority to approve it (at least the PS+IL+BE+PAN+Livre), then the diploma is ready to go straight to the plenary. If everything goes smoothly this time, Parliament could approve the decriminalization of assisted death at the end of the plenary session on Friday 9 December.
It was about merging into one text the projects of PS, IL, PAN and BE. The text already existed, but on October 26 the PS asked for the vote to be postponed because they did not want the process to disrupt the budget discussion. The Socialists called for a “thorough analysis” of the pleas.
“We don’t want to tarnish this process with accusations of lack of democracy.”
This Wednesday at 8.15 am, a new version reached the deputies. A minor change was made to an article (the 25th) on the Commission for Verification and Evaluation of Clinical Procedures for Medically Assisted Death. To prevent the committee from being put out of action due to the failure to appoint some of its members (for example by the Medical Association), the article stating that it will come into effect “once all its members have been appointed” has been deleted. .
Chega then took the opportunity to ask for a postponement of the vote, arguing that there had been no time to analyze the new articles (since it will always vote against, regardless of the final version).
The PS, afraid of being accused of using its majority as a steamroller, agreed (“we don’t want to tarnish this process with accusations of lack of democracy,” said deputy Isabel Moreira). The postponement was approved with the votes for the proponents, the PS and PSD, the Liberal Initiative, PCP, PAN and Livre abstained and the BE voted against.
Afterwards, through André Ventura, Chega announced that he will ask the President of the Republic to veto the law: “Chega today informed the President of the Republic that he has asked him for an audience on this issue, of euthanasia, to bring the matter to the attention Presidency matters that are a clear and blatant violation of our constitutional order and also the trampling of political rights in this process, namely at the hearings that Chega insisted on requested under the conditions of the applicable law, and which were refused by the Commission.”
Source: DN
