Legislation of euthanasia in Portugal: The psychiatrist?s role

Autores da FMUP

• Lia Paula Nogueira Sousa Fernandes

  Autor

Participantes de fora da FMUP

• Barranha, R.
• Ferreira, A.

Unidades de investigação

• Laboratório Associado RISE- Rede de Investigação em Saúde

  

  Investigador

  Fernando Carlos De Landér Schmitt

• Neurociências Clínicas e Saúde Mental

• RISE-Health

  

  Investigador

  Fernando Carlos De Landér Schmitt

Abstract

<jats:p>The Netherlands (2001) and Belgium (2002) were pioneer countries in euthanasia legislation, and it has been progressively implemented in Luxembourg (2009), Colombia (2015), Canada (2016), the state of Victoria in Australia (2017), and New Zealand (2021). After these, the most recent approvals of euthanasia-related legislation were Spains Organic Law (2021), and recently, in December 2022, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide were approved by the Portuguese parliament, following four years of discussion.</jats:p><jats:p>In this context, an increasing number of countries are currently regulating or considering the inclusion of euthanasia as a healthcare service, which places an urgent need to define the health professionals and particularly psychiatrists roles and participation in this process. Currently, these assessments are limited by the lack of scientific precision in the methods used to determine patients decision-making capacity, conditioning this process to psychiatrists personal beliefs.</jats:p><jats:p>This presentation will provide a comprehensive overview of Portuguese legislation, highlighting the psychiatrists involvement.</jats:p>