Portugal, Germany take steps towards legal euthanasia in Europe

Euthanasia took a step towards legality in Europe on Friday, after Portugal's parliament voted to let doctors help terminally ill people end their lives and German lawmakers proposed similar legislation. Portugal became the fourth member of the European Union to legalise a form of the practice, in the face of opposition from religious and conservative groups in the predominantly Catholic country.

Euthanasia took a step towards legality in Europe on Friday, after Portugal's parliament voted to let doctors help terminally ill people end their lives and German lawmakers proposed similar legislation.

Portugal became the fourth member of the European Union to legalise a form of the practice, in the face of opposition from religious and conservative groups in the predominantly Catholic country. The vote and the moves in Germany came a month after Spain's lower house of parliament approved a bill allowing the seriously ill to choose to end their lives. That legislation was then sent on to the Senate.

"With this vote, parliament added dignity to our democracy," Jose Manuel Pureza, a lawmaker for Portugal's Left Bloc said in Lisbon. He called the approval by 136-78 votes with four abstentions a "democratic answer to fundamentalism and fear".

Advocates say euthanasia allows people to avoid needless suffering at the end of life. Forms of it are already allowed in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. But opposition remains deep across much of Europe and beyond where some groups say it could put vulnerable people under pressure to end their lives.

Euthanasia is particularly sensitive in Germany due to the legacy of the Nazis, who murdered an estimated 300,000 people with disabilities and psychological ailments under a "euthanasia" programme because their lives were deemed unworthy. The German legislation - proposed by members of the Social Democrats, who are in the ruling coalition, as well as the opposition FDP and Linke - would allow assisted suicide for terminally ill adults once they have received counselling.

The opposition Greens put forward a similar bill. Neither draft bill had the formal backing of parliament, but if all the members of all those parties backed one of those bills, it would go through. Germany's top court last year ruled in favour of groups that help people die, saying an existing law that bans assisted suicide services breached the constitution. (Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Andrew Heavens)