constitutional Court Portugal rejected for the second time today a law to decriminalize euthanasia in the country, citing “unacceptable ambiguity” in its provisions. Now the bill is being returned to the parliament, which has been trying to develop and adopt a relevant law for three years now.

The judges ruled that the text was unconstitutional because it lacked a precise definition of “extreme pain” that paves the way for a patient’s “medical death,” a statement read to reporters said.

The same court also rejected the law in March 2021, finding that the terms used in the text were “grossly inaccurate”.

Parliament can reformulate the text and submit it again for approval to the President of the Republic, the conservative Marcelo Rebel de Souza, who appealed to the Constitutional Court in early January. Lawmakers first voted to decriminalize euthanasia in February 2020, but the law met with objections from the president, a devout Catholic and former law professor, who vetoed an earlier version of the law.

Socialist MP Isabel Moreira commented on the decision of the Constitutional Court, saying that it was based on a “technical detail” and that “most of the arguments of the President of the Republic were not accepted”. “If it’s about correcting the word, we’re here to do it,” he said.

Only a few European countries, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, have legalized euthanasia to date.

Source: APE/MEB