We All Deserve a Death With Dignity
JacobinApr 15, 2021
Portugal on Friday approved a law legalizing euthanasia for nationals and legal residents aged over 18 who are suffering "lasting and unbearable" pain and are deemed mentally fit to make such a decision in cases where a physical disability of the patient hinders a medically assisted suicide.
The bill, which was first introduced three years ago, was cleared with a majority of 129 parliamentarians to 81 despite facing harsh opposition from conservative Pres. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The legalization of euthanasia is a move in the right direction to ensure that people are entitled to die with dignity, with European countries leading this trend. Though this benevolent practice is complementary to access to good palliative care, it has long been a privilege of the White upper class while the working class has to find other alternatives to end their suffering.
Palliative care and medicine for pain control have advanced so much that patients do not have to suffer intolerable pain anymore, meaning that the main argument in favor of euthanasia is based on a false dichotomy between death and physical suffering. Even if this was the case, the value of human life must never be reduced to present perceptions of pain.