Portugal Legalizes Limited Euthanasia

Facts

• Portugal on Friday approved a law legalizing euthanasia for nationals and legal residents aged over 18 who are suffering "lasting and unbearable" pain and are deemed mentally fit to make such a decision in cases where a physical disability of the patient hinders a medically assisted suicide.¹
• The bill, which was first introduced three years ago, was cleared with a majority of 129 parliamentarians to 81 despite facing harsh opposition from conservative Pres. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.²
• The ruling Socialist Party, the Liberal Initiative, as well as three left-to-center parties overwhelmingly supported the legislation, with some members of the center-right Social Democrats (PSD) also backing it.³
• Rebelo de Sousa, who had vetoed the euthanasia bill four times due to "excessively undefined concepts," now has a week to promulgate the definitive version of the law.⁴
• The reform, however, can still be thwarted or delayed in the meantime if 10% of MPs formally request the Constitutional Court to review the legislation. Some PSD members have already vowed to do so, and right-wing Chega leader André Ventura is skeptical about the law ever coming into force.³
• Euthanasia is legal in five European countries — Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Spain — while Austria, Finland, and Norway allow passive euthanasia in strict circumstances, and Switzerland authorizes assisted suicide.⁵

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²DW, ³BBC News, ⁴France 24, and ⁵Euronews.

Narratives

• Progressive narrative, as provided by Jacobin. The legalization of euthanasia is a move in the right direction to ensure that people are entitled to die with dignity, with European countries leading this trend. Though this benevolent practice is complementary to access to good palliative care, it has long been a privilege of the White upper class while the working class has to find other alternatives to end their suffering.
• Conservative narrative, as provided by CBN. Palliative care and medicine for pain control have advanced so much that patients do not have to suffer intolerable pain anymore, meaning that the main argument in favor of euthanasia is based on a false dichotomy between death and physical suffering. Even if this was the case, the value of human life must never be reduced to present perceptions of pain.