(LifeSiteNews) – The Portuguese Constitutional court declared a law that introduced legal euthanasia unconstitutional.
The court argued in its decision that “an intolerable lack of definition was thus created as to the exact scope of application of the new law.” It further stated that “the conditions under which medically assisted death is legally admissible must be ‘clear, foreseeable and controllable’ (Judgment No. 123/2021), and it is up to the legislator to define them in a way that is certain for all concerned.”
The court did not declare euthanasia itself unconstitutional, but rather the imprecision contained within the text of the legislation. The court noted that the typology of suffering that would be needed to legally euthanize a person described in the law was ambiguous:
In conducting this review, the Court concluded that, since the legislator had decided to characterize the typology of suffering by listing three characteristics (“physical, psychological and spiritual”) linked by the conjunction “and”, two conflicting interpretations of this assumption are plausible and tenable.
In doing so, the legislator gave rise to the doubt, which must be clarified, as to whether the requirement is cumulative (physical suffering, plus psychological suffering, plus spiritual suffering) or alternative (both physical, psychological, and spiritual suffering).
The law was already the third attempt to legalize assisted suicide in Portugal in the past two years. The previous two attempts were struck down by the Constitutional court and by Portugal’s president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa vetoing the bill.
READ: Portugal’s Parliament tries to legalize assisted suicide for the third time in 18 months
Moreover, in 2018, the majority of delegates in the Portuguese parliament rejected a bill that sought to legalize euthanasia.
READ: Assisted suicide rejected in Portugal
Pro-life groups celebrated the victory but also stressed that the fight to protect life against euthanasia in Portugal is not over yet.
The Portuguese Federation for Life and the “One of Us” Federation released a joint statement, nothing this “is the second time that the Constitutional Court has declared a euthanasia law unconstitutional and the fourth time, since 2018, that the promoters of this law have been frustrated.”
“However, this legislative process does not end with this declaration of unconstitutionality, since its promoters have already declared that they will modify the law again, trying to reform its provisions that were declared unconstitutional.”
“The Portuguese Federation Pela Vida and One of Us will continue our fight in defense of Life,” the statement read.
“The effort to control the lives of citizens, the control of our death, should make us reflect on the excessive action of governments and certain lobbies that live off the death of their immense power and their commitment to absolute control of our societies.”