Votes against came from the parliamentary groups of Chega and PCP and the majority of the social democratic bench.
The PS bench had six votes against, from deputies Joaquim Barreto, Pedro Cegonho, Sobrinho Teixeira, Romualda Fernandes, Cristina Sousa and Maria João Castro. Socialist José Carlos Alexandrino also abstained.
On the PSD bench, deputies Catarina Rocha Ferreira, Hugo Carvalho, Isabel Meireles, André Coelho Lima, Sofia Matos and Adão Silva voted in favour. Three social democrats abstained: Lina Lopes, Jorge Salgueiro Mendes and Ofélia Ramos.
In total, 210 deputies were present in plenary. According to data made available by parliamentary services in the hemicycle, 122 deputies voted in favour, 84 against and there were four abstentions.
The decree is now being finalized and still has to be considered by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who can enact it, veto it or ask the Constitutional Court for preventive inspection of the text.
At the end of the vote, applause was heard from the deputies who voted in favour.
The text establishes that “non-punishable medically assisted death” occurs “by decision of the person, whose will is current and reiterated, serious, free and clear, in a situation of suffering of great intensity, with definitive injury of extreme gravity or serious and incurable disease, when practiced or helped by health professionals”.
This time, compared to the last decree, deputies dropped the "fatal disease" requirement.
In the text there is an article with the definition of several concepts, among them, that of “suffering of great intensity”, which is defined as “physical, psychological and spiritual suffering, resulting from a serious and incurable disease or from a definitive injury of extreme gravity, with great intensity, persistent, continuous or permanent and considered intolerable by the person himself”.
A “serious and incurable disease” is defined as “a life-threatening disease, in an advanced and progressive phase, incurable and irreversible, which causes severe suffering”.
The replacement text also establishes a minimum period of two months from the start of the procedure for its implementation, with the provision of psychological support also being mandatory.