Yesterday, the president of the republic assured that he would make a quick decision on the law to decriminalize medically assisted death, which will be passed in parliament today, when he receives the document in Belém, pointing to Christmas as the likely date .
“Before that, I do not want to prejudge the vote of the Assembly. And then, as you know, there is the publication in the Journal of the Assembly of the Republic until it is sent to Belém, there are no holidays for the next few weeks […] so it is possible that it will arrive in Belém on the 24th, the 25th,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The president of the republic responded to the fact that the final text on the decriminalization of medically assisted death was approved in the specialty on Wednesday with votes for PS, IL and BE and against Chega and abstention from PCP and PSD.
The fact that the PS has a majority in parliament is sufficient for the new diploma to be approved worldwide in a final vote today. This after a first draft, approved in the previous legislature, with a large majority in parliament, was the target of a first veto by the Constitutional Court (following a request for scrutiny by the President of the Republic) and a second political veto by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
At the time, the head of state understood that different expressions were used in the new text to define the kind of illnesses required and to defend that the legislator had to choose between “any serious illness”, “serious and incurable illness” and “incurable and incurable illness “. fatal disease”.
What does the new project say?
The new version amending the Penal Code, which decriminalizes medically assisted death, drops the term “deadly disease” as intended by Marcelo.
The text stipulates that “non-punishable death with medical assistance” occurs “by decision of the person, parent, whose will is current and repeated, serious, free and clear, in a situation of very intense suffering, with final injury of extreme seriousness or serious and incurable illness, when practiced or aided by health professionals”.
This decision can be carried out in two ways: medical assisted suicide, with self-administration of lethal drugs, provided by the physician or health professional appropriately qualified for the purpose; and euthanasia, with administration of the same drugs by the doctor or health professional.
The diploma typifies what is meant by a serious and incurable illness; permanent and very serious injury with no possibility of healing, making the person dependent on a third party or technological support to perform the most basic activities of daily living; and suffering of “great intensity” – physical, psychological and spiritual – resulting from the other two situations and which is “deemed unbearable by the person themselves”.
The text to be voted on today now provides for a minimum period of two months from the start of the procedure for its implementation, including the provision of psychological support.
There is also provision for the figure of the “accompanying physician”, indicated by the patient, who is given a period of 20 days to substantiate whether the patient meets the requirements to request medically assisted death. The intervention of a doctor specialized in the patient’s pathology is also requested, who will have to confirm or not confirm the opinion. If you do not confirm this, the order will be cancelled.
If the two doctors give a positive opinion, they will be submitted to the Committee for Verification and Evaluation of Clinical Procedures for Medically Assisted Death, which must rule within five days.
The Commission will consist of five personalities – a jurist appointed by the High Council of Justice; a lawyer appointed by the Supreme Court of the Public Prosecution Service; a doctor appointed by the Medical Association; a nurse appointed by the Order of Nurses; and a bioethics expert appointed by the National Council on Ethics for the Life Sciences.
Only medically assisted death requests submitted by national citizens or legally residing on the national territory will be considered.
The choice of location for this practice is up to the patient and can be practiced in National Health Service and private and social sector establishments that are duly licensed. “If the patient’s choice falls on a location other than that referred to in the previous issue, the accompanying physician must certify that the patient has sufficient clinical and comfortable conditions for this,” the diploma says.
Source: DN
