Pope condemns Portugal’s law legalizing euthanasia: ‘Very sad’ over ‘law to kill’

Pope Francis on Saturday criticized the legalization of limited euthanasia in Portugal, a bill that was first introduced nearly four years ago but was only approved this week.

After four failed attempts, Portuguese lawmakers on Friday voted to legalize medically assisted dying in cases of adults suffering from serious and incurable illnesses, Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias reported.

Under the new law, patients are required to be mentally fit to make the decision and they have to be “in a situation of great intensity of suffering, with definitive injury of extreme gravity or serious and incurable disease.”

Only Portuguese citizens or legal residents are covered by the law.

Pope Francis took issue with the new legislation, saying Portugal is the latest in a “long list of countries with euthanasia.”

“Today when we celebrate the memory of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the little shepherds of Fatima, I am very sad, because in the country where Our Lady appeared, a law to kill has been enacted,” the pope said Saturday morning at the Vatican.

Roman Catholics celebrate the feast of Our Lady de Fatima on May 13 — the anniversary of what the faithful say was the apparition of Our Lady to three young children in the small Portuguese village of Fatima in 1917.

Friday’s vote marked the fifth time lawmakers were asked to decide on medically assisted dying regulations.

The Portuguese Parliament had previously approved the legislation. However, lawmakers were met with stiff opposition from Portugal’s center-right president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who’d either veto it or send the legislation for a constitutional review.

This time the bill was passed by an absolute majority, which means Rebelo de Sousa — a staunch Catholic who was reelected in a landslide vote in 2021 — is required to sign it into law.

Euthanasia is legal in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In Europe, the practice is legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain, according to Reuters. Medically assisted suicide is also legal in several other countries across the continent.

In the U.S., medical aid in dying (MAID) is authorized in 10 states, including New Jersey and California, as well as Washington D.C., according to Compassion and Choices, a nonprofit that “works to improve care and expand choice at the end of life.” Similar legislation is being considered is currently being considered in Delaware.

Earlier this year, Vermont became the first U.S. state to allow nonresidents to use its medically assisted suicide law.