After verdict, Portugal’s lawmakers try redraft dying law

The Portuguese parliament would attempt to redraft assisted dying legislation after the Constitutional Court ruled parts of the prospective legislation were unconstitutional.

Although the court’s opposition to the law as written would require the change, Jose Luis Ferreira of the environmental ENP party noted that it confirmed “that the right to life is under no circumstances an obligation to life.

On Monday, the court had ruled, seven to five that the law, as written, was too vague about definitions related to the decriminalisation of medically assisted dying.

The ruling prompted a veto by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who sent the legislation back for a rewrite.

Legislators approved the law with a large majority in January. It foresaw that an adult was subjected to “unbearable suffering’’ due to an “irrecoverable injury of extreme gravity’’ or due to an incurable disease, as attested by a doctor, may seek medical assistance to die.

The judges, however, ruled that the two terms were not defined concretely enough in the legal text.