Drastic changes are being made to parliament’s continued attempts to pass a law decriminalising assisted suicide/ ‘euthanasia’. When the latest draft comes up for debate in parliament on March 31 it is understood (by Público) that clauses will call for ‘self-administration’ of the lethal injection – unless the person wishing to die is too physically incapacitated to do this, in which case it can be administered by a doctor who will have had to attest to the fact that the patient is incapable of injecting himself/ herself. According to reports, this new stipulation “configures a significant reduction in the scope of medically assisted death, and seeks to respond to arguments of President Marcelo and the Constitutional Court who considered the previous draft-law unconstitutional. The new version of the text however continues to be worked on by political parties ahead of the March 31 debate date.
March 16, 2023 Edition
PORTUGAL RESIDENT
Printed Edition
