A doctor can also euthanize a patient when “medically assisted suicide is impossible due to a physical disability of the patient.” Assisted suicide is the providing of lethal drugs so patients can take their own lives, while euthanasia is the direct killing of patients by doctors.
Portugal’s new law, which was passed by a strong majority on Friday, overturns earlier vetoes from Catholic President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Pope Francis made an impromptu comment on Portuguese legislation during a meeting in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall with participants in the general assembly of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations.
On May 13, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, who appeared six times to three shepherd children in a field in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. She brought with her requests for the recitation of the rosary, for sacrifices on behalf of sinners, and a secret regarding the fate of the world.
Pope Francis canonized two of the Fatima visionaries, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, in 2017. Sister Lucia dos Santos, the eldest child to witness the Fatima apparitions, is on the path to beatification. She died in 2005 at the age of 97.
The apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima are some of the most well-known Marian apparitions in the world.