The bill would allow this form of euthanasia if an adult’s desire to die is “current and repeated, serious, free and informed,” the BBC reports.
“The person must be in a situation in which he or she is suffering greatly, has suffered a serious injury or is suffering from a serious and incurable disease,” the text says. Portugal thus joins a number of countries that have similar legislation.
The House voted 126 to 84 in favor. All but seven members of Portugal’s ruling Socialist Party, which has a majority in parliament, supported the law, as did some opposition members.
Other opposition politicians, however, called on conservative Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to send the text for constitutional review, as he had done with an earlier version. They claim that the bill still has problems.
This is the third time that a bill allowing euthanasia has passed through all parliamentary stages. The first time was in early 2020, when the president sent the draft to the Constitutional Court, which confirmed some of his concerns.
Euthanasia is completely legal in three European countries: Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. But euthanasia and passive euthanasia–in various forms–are legal in many more European countries.
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