LISBON (LifeSiteNews) — Lawmakers in Portugal have voted to legalize euthanasia in certain cases, overriding a previous veto from the country’s president.
On Friday, a law that has been debated and vetoed with various updates in recent years was finally enacted, allowing for euthanasia to be legal in specified circumstances. The new law permits individuals over age 18 to obtain euthanasia if they are suffering “lasting” and “unbearable” pain or enduring a terminal illness.
Only legal residents are able to request euthanasia, preventing non-citizens from traveling into Portugal to access medically-induced death. Those who are pursuing euthanasia also must not be suffering from a mentally illness, which leaves allowance of administering euthanasia subject to an individual’s mental health.
The Quebec College of Physicians believes Canada’s assisted suicide program, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), can and should be used on infants born with ‘severe malformations’.
This is nothing short of infanticide.
In a recent press release, Dr. Louis Roy from the Quebec College of Physicians claimed that MAiD could be appropriate for babies born with ‘grave and severe syndromes’ for which their ‘prospective of survival is null, so to speak.’
No matter how you spin it, an infant cannot consent to their own death – to decide for them and give a lethal dose is murder.
Sign now to tell the Quebec College of Physicians they cannot issue death sentences to infants with illnesses!
Once the door to killing without consent is opened, the number of people who become eligible to be murdered increases exponentially. Providing MAiD to a person who cannot consent is a standard that is wildly dangerous for all persons with intellectual disabilities in Canada.
Canada cannot begin killing babies when doctors predict that they will not have a good quality of life. Predictions are often based on discriminatory assumptions about life with a disability. Many people diagnosed with disabilities as babies who were expected to not have a good quality of life are now grown adults leading thriving lives.
Providing MAiD for terminally ill newborns is murder! This is a slippery slope towards ending the lives of millions of people either born with or diagnosed with intellectual disabilities.
The Quebec College of Physicians MUST back down from infanticide — SIGN NOW and make them know that you flatly condemn this horrifying practice!
MORE INFORMATION:
‘It’s murder’: Quebec physicians group slammed for proposing to euthanize ‘severely ill’ babies
The law was passed with the influence of the Socialist Party, which holds an absolute majority in Portugal’s parliament, and may go into effect in the fall of this year.
The largely Catholic country’s anti-life legislation comes years after similar proposals were initially introduced, always failing at the hands of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. His most recent veto came on April 20, when the nation’s leader rejected the fourth draft of the euthanasia bill.
Previously, a high court had shut down another attempt to legalize assisted suicide, deeming the measure unconstitutional and faulty due to “an intolerable lack of definition.” The court said that in order to implement the bill, the language must be “clear, foreseeable and controllable.”
In 2021, LifeSiteNews reported that the debate returned to the top court and was found to be a threat to the principle of “inviolability of life.” Later that year, Rebelo de Sousa vetoed yet another version of the bill passed by the parliament.
Portugal’s legalization of euthanasia comes amid an ongoing debate about the issue taking place across the globe. The Netherlands, where assisted suicide has been legal since 2002, recently began pushing to expand this form of murder by legalizing the practice for children under the age of 12. Canada, a country that legalized euthanasia in 2016, also continues its promotion of this atrocity, resulting in a greater acceptance of the practice among citizens.
On the other hand, some leaders are rejecting the immoral practice. In April, France’s National Council of the College of Physicians released a statement declaring its opposition to assisted suicide. In Connecticut, a euthanasia bill was defeated by lawmakers this year for the 11th year in a row.
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