Luís Marques was the Portuguese lookalike of Ramón Sampedro, the Galician whose cause became the symbol of the fight for the decriminalization of euthanasia. Marques did not die in his region like Sampedro, helped by a chain of people who helped him, with Ramona Maneiro at the head, so that he could drink the poison that ended his life prostrate in bed. He died at the age of 63, after 55 of them a paraplegic, and he did so in Switzerland, 2,000 kilometers from his home and paying 10,000 euros. His example was claimed this Friday by the Socialist Party (PS), moments after the Portuguese Parliament approved the law on medically assisted death for the third time, with 126 votes in favor, 84 against and four abstentions.
They were opposed by the conservative PSD, except for six deputies who opted for yes, taking advantage of the freedom to vote that the big parties in Portugal give in this type of moral issues, the extreme right of Chega and the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). In a chamber dominated since January by the absolute majority of the PS, they declared themselves in favor of this political force, that of the Prime Minister, António Costa, although also with six deputies against; Liberal Initiative (IL), Bloco de Esquerda (BE), the People, Animals and Nature Party (PAN) and the leftist Livre.
With regard to the small forces, displacements are observed with respect to the traditional center-left and center-right axis that marks Portuguese politics, specifically in the case of the IL and the PCP. It was the communists who brought down, in 2018, the attempt to carry out the law to decriminalize euthanasia that their then partners from the PS and the Bloco defended. The process in which the very Catholic Portugal, especially in its northern half, could become the first country in southern Europe to take this step, following in the wake of the Benelux states, was cut short.
The two subsequent attempts did prosper in the legislative chamber, located in the Lisbon neighborhood of São Bento, but they ran into the wall of Belém, the town not only famous for its tower on the banks of the Tagus estuary, the genuine cream cakes and the imposing Jerónimos Monastery, but also because the palace of the President of the Republic is located there. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who bears that name after his godfather, the last dictator of Portugal, although no one doubts his firm democratic convictions, is a militant Catholic and practically. He used the prerogatives of the head of state to send the law to the Constitutional Court and veto it.
Marcelo, as he is universally known in Portugal, demanded that the legislature choose whether for medically assisted death “only a serious illness, a serious and incurable illness, or an incurable and fatal illness” is required. Article 3 of the law approved this Friday establishes that it can only be applied "in a situation of suffering of great intensity, with a definitive injury of extreme gravity or a serious and incurable illness."
The right wanted to follow the route that led to the decriminalization of abortion, that of the referendum, according to the bet of the new PSD leader, Luís Montenegro. Yesterday, in a tense parliamentary session, the conservative deputies demanded that their proposal be voted on, which was not accepted as it did not comply with the parliamentary procedures, while, for reasons of content, Chega did not support it either, which is in favor of the consultation popular.
Now, once again, all eyes have turned to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, former leader of the PSD in the 1990s and, until he became president of the republic, the television commentator with the most prestige and audience in Portugal. Talkative and keen observer of reality from his vantage point at the Head of State, which nevertheless has few real powers, the last thing he said is that he was following the entire parliamentary process, that he hoped to receive the text before Christmas, as he will happen, and it will decide based on its content.
