Catarina Martins said this Sunday that “there is no reason” why there should not be a law on euthanasia as there is “a majority in parliament to overcome a presidential veto”.
In Póvoa de Varzim (Porto district), after visiting the Estela fair, invited to comment on Chega’s request to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to veto the diploma – to be voted on in the Assembly of the Republic – Catarina Martins recalled that this is a “very important” topic for the Bloco de Esquerda and mentioned former coordinator João Semedo’s commitment to this law.
“This issue has been debated in Portugal for more than 20 years. In parliament, we are already in the third legislature of the debate. Everyone was heard, we make a very careful law, it uses the best international practices and rejects the dangers that were international visas. We have the best laws and we have a majority in parliament to override a veto.”said the leader of the blockers.
Catarina Martins said that “there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a law [sobre a eutanásia]” and, he stressed, “there is no reason, above all, why we do not have a law in Portugal with this respect for people who are in great suffering at the end of their lives”.
“For us it is a very important law, a law that has to do with respect for people’s lives to the end. A law that has to do with empathy, with respect for the suffering of others and respect for the choice that every person has. We worked hard for her. João Semedo was one of the proponents and I am sure that we will finally have the João Semedo law,” he said.
On Thursday, Chega’s leader criticized the “hasty and hurried” way the parliamentary process of euthanasia is taking place, defending the political veto of a law he deems it almost impossible “will not be declared unconstitutional”.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, allowed an audience requested by André Ventura regarding the euthanasia process and Chega’s leader told journalists at the end of the meeting that the aim was “to give a note to the presidency of the republic of how the parliamentary process is going on”.
In the previous legislature, the decriminalization of death by medical aid received a large majority in parliament, but was the target of two vetoes by the President of the Republic: the first time after the Constitutional Court failed, following a request for oversight by the Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, second by political veto.
Source: DN
