Portugal's conservative president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, on Tuesday signed into law the law decriminalizing euthanasia passed last week by parliament, following a painstaking legislative process.
The final version of the law governing "medically assisted death" was adopted last Friday with 129 votes in favor out of a total of 230 deputies, including those of the elected representatives of the Socialist Party in power. "The Constitution obliges the President to promulgate a law which he has vetoed and which has been confirmed by the Assembly of the Republic. I will promulgate it, of course, it is my constitutional duty," said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa after the vote.
A parliamentary majority had already voted four times in favour of decriminalising assisted dying in the last three years. But the text was then met with the reservations of the Constitutional Court and the head of state, a practicing Catholic. In order to overcome the last veto of the president, the socialists had decided to vote the same text a second time.
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The text of the law has been reformulated several times in order to take into account the remarks of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who vetoed it twice, and after having been rejected, also twice, by the Constitutional Court, which had pointed out certain "inaccuracies".
The final version of the law provides that euthanasia is only allowed in cases where "physician-assisted suicide is impossible due to a physical disability of the patient." After the publication of the implementing decrees, the law could enter into force next autumn, according to estimates cited by the local press.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are now allowed in a handful of European countries, such as those in the Benelux, the first to have authorized them, and neighboring Spain.
