Government Blocks Eutanásia Implementation Three Years After Law 22/2023 Citing Acórdão 307/2025 Constitutional Court Ruling — Portuguese Sign-Ups With Switzerland's Dignitas Climb to 80

Three years after Parliament approved Law 22/2023, of 25 May, decriminalising medically assisted death, the regime remains unimplemented — and the government has now told Público that it has no plans to change that. The Ministry of Health says it cannot proceed with regulation without 'segurança jurídica', citing the Constitutional Court's Acórdão 307/2025 from June last year, which struck down five core provisions of the statute with general binding force.

The political stalemate has had a measurable consequence abroad: the number of Portuguese citizens registered with Switzerland's Dignitas association has climbed to 80, up from 75 a year ago, the largest single-year increase since the Swiss organisation began admitting Portuguese members. At least twelve Portuguese have travelled to Switzerland to use Dignitas's accompanied-suicide service over the past seventeen years.

What the Constitutional Court Actually Ruled

Acórdão 307/2025 was the fourth time Portugal's highest court had reviewed an iteration of the assisted-dying law. The plenary did not strike down the regime as a whole — the court reiterated that the Constitution neither mandates nor prohibits the legalisation of assisted death and that Parliament has a margin of discretion between individual freedom and the protection of human life. What it declared unconstitutional were five operational provisions:

• Article 9(1), on the orientating doctor's combined choice of method;
• Article 16(1)(e), on the patient's decision over the method to be used;
• Article 19(c), on the requirement of informed and conscious choice;
• Article 6(1), for failing to require a specialist examination of the patient's clinical condition;
• Article 21(2), on the conscience-objection regime for healthcare professionals.

Without those five articles the procedural backbone of the law collapses. Parliament's Comissão de Assuntos Constitucionais has been waiting on a government-led revision since the ruling; none has materialised.

The Government's Position

In its statement to Público, the Ministry of Health framed its inertia as caution rather than blockage. The ministry says it is not 'travando' the law but 'ensuring that any application fully respects the Constitution and legal security.' No specific timetable was offered. No officials were quoted by name. The Strategic Pact for Health that President António José Seguro entrusted to Adalberto Campos Fernandes this week — set to begin work on Monday — does not include assisted-dying regulation on its agenda.

What This Means in Practice

Portugal becomes the only EU member state to have legislated assisted death without ever bringing the regime into force. The Bloco de Esquerda and Iniciativa Liberal have both signalled they will table revised drafts in the new parliamentary session, but with the AD government and the PSD's coalition partner CDS opposed and Chega ideologically aligned against, the parliamentary arithmetic for a new vote remains thin.

For the eighty Portuguese now registered with Dignitas — and for the broader cohort of patients with terminal or severely incapacitating conditions waiting on a domestic option — the practical answer remains a journey to Switzerland, where Dignitas charges roughly €11,000 for the accompanied-suicide procedure plus travel, accommodation and a witness requirement. Portuguese consular services do not assist, and the bodies are returned for burial under standard cross-border procedures.