As Fr. Manuel Barbosa, press spokesman of the Episcopate explained, the bishops expected the head of state to have doubts as to whether the law approved by parliament in late January was consonant with the constitution.

He added that in the official statement, the bishops also expressed the hope that the Constitutional Tribunal would find the law legalising euthanasia contrary to the country’s legislation. “

Instead of this new law, the state should focus more on providing more palliative care to the suffering” added Fr. Manuel Barbosa.

By sending the law legalising euthanasia to the Constitutional Tribunal, the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, expressed the conviction that the document was imprecise in terms of the rules based on which decisions would be made to admit specific persons to assisted death.

In the justification of his decision, the head of state explained that the act was flawed; it did not indicate precisely in what situations the procedures for submitting patients to euthanasia would be conducted.

Source: pch24.pl