News analysis: Should euthanasia in Portugal be made legal or is lack of palliative care the root problem?

Claims that euthanasia or doctor-assisted suicide is being practised illegally in Portuguese hospitals has left the country divided, with critics of the practise saying the root of suffering must be tackled rather than putting an end to the lives of the sick.

The debate regarding Euthanasia was sparked by head of the country's national nurses union who said that she was aware that doctors in Portugal had taken part in assisting suicides for terminally ill patients at public hospitals.

Ana Rita Cavaco told Radio Renancenca that, for example, there were doctors who had suggested giving insulin to patients to provoke an insulin coma.

This has caused the health ministry to order an urgent inquiry into the allegations, and comes as the country gets ready to debate making Euthanasia legal in parliament following a petition signed by around 4,000 people entitled "right to die with dignity" which was sent to parliament.

Associations step up efforts against euthanasia.

Currently, helping a patient die is considered homicide and carries a punishment of up to three years in prison.

The Association of Catholic Doctors has taken a firm stance against what they say is a "culture of death" in a report released last month, pointing out that it constitutes "inviolability of human life" and Carlos Alberto da Rocha, the association's President, told Xinhua that he has no knowledge of euthanasia having been practised in hospitals.

"It was an enormous surprise because I have never heard of any comments that that could be happening in Portuguese hospitals," he says.

"I think this recent news has the objective to raise awareness that euthanasia is taking place, and that it is preferable to regulate it than to close our eyes and for things to continue to be done in silent."

However he says he is completely against the practise. "The manifesto presents euthanasia as a medical act to give death to someone who has asked for it but it cannot be considered a medical act. As a doctor and irrespectively of my faith, we advise to help and accompany the sick in suffering, and it would be a paradigm shift to do otherwise."

He says it is common for sick people to want to die but that what needs to be enforced is palliative care to ensure they are getting the right support.

According to the Portuguese Association for Palliative Care, the lack of this kind of support should not be a reason to justify the practice of euthanasia.

"We need a greater response to palliative care ... we have big waiting lists and many people who cannot have access to this kind of support. Do we want to resolve the problem from the root or kill the person who suffers?" says Manuel Luis Capelas, head of the Portuguese Association for Palliative Care.

He adds: "Would we legalize stealing just because there are many people who steal?"

He also says that people must differentiate between medically assisted death and euthanasia which he says wasn't clearly reflected in the recent discussions.

Since the debate was sparked, several allegations have been brought into the spotlight.

A nurse, who started working in a central hospital in 1975 and wished to stay anonymous, told Jornal de Noticias recently that he had seen people being helped to die for around 40 years, and that one of the most common technics involved injecting air in the patient's veins, which can be confused with a heart attack.

Activists say euthanasia is right to freedom.

The manifesto was signed by former politicians and prominent figures in Portugal including Joao Semedo, Paulo Teixeira da Cruz, Rui Rio, Alexandre Quintanilha, Pacheco Pereira and Mariana Mortagua.

"We are citizens and citizens of Portugal, united in the privileged valorization of the right to freedom. That's why we defend the decriminalization and regulations of assisted death as a concrete expression of individual rights to autonomy, religious freedom and freedom of conviction of conscience, rights registered in the Constitution," the manifesto reads.

"Assisted suicide consists of the act of, in response to the patient's request - informed, conscience and reiterated - to anticipate or abbreviate the death of patients in great suffering and without hope of cure."

The first country to make euthanasia legal was the Netherlands in 2002. Belgium also made euthanasia legal in 2002, where cases of euthanasia have doubled in the past 5 years. Endit