The Portuguese Parliament adopted today once again a law to decriminalize euthanasia, which was redrafted after it was revoked by the Constitutional Court and will now be subject to the evaluation of conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Souza.

The bill, which until now ran into the reservations of the president and the Constitutional Court, was approved by the parliament for the fourth time in three years, thanks to the votes of the socialist majority.

The bill will be submitted to the head of state, a staunch Catholic and former law professor. Souza will be able to either publish it or put it back for review by the Constitutional Court in order for it to verify its compliance with the country’s Constitution, or exercise his veto, as he has already done in the past.

The new version of the law introduces an innovation to answer the questions raised by the Constitutional Court. Euthanasia is only allowed in cases where “medically assisted suicide is impossible due to the patient’s physical incapacity,” the bill adopted today states.

The Constitutional Court, to which the head of state appealed, rejected a previous draft law for the second time in January, pointing out the “unacceptable inaccuracy” in its drafting and sending it back to Parliament.

The judges had specifically ruled that the bill did not clearly define the “diseases of great intensity” that could pave the way for a “medically assisted death”.

The lawmaker “was tested like never before… this is the law that has been tested more times than I can remember,” Socialist MP Isabel Moreira, one of the loudest voices in favor of decriminalizing euthanasia, said during the debate before of the deputies.

The association of Catholic doctors, for its part, expressed its “strong opposition” to this law, considering that “medically assisted euthanasia and suicide… are not medical acts”, according to a press release.

After Belgium and the Netherlands, some five European countries, such as neighboring Spain, have legalized euthanasia to date.