In comments to Lusa after a meeting at the parliament building with the movement Direito a Morrer com Dignidade (Right to Die with Dignity), which submitted the petition, BE deputy José Manuel Pureza said that he had "informed the movement that the BE's bill is ready". He said it comprises "about 25 articles that have the decriminalisation of assisted dying - both assisted suicide and euthanasia in the more limited sense - as their objective".

The party is committed to organising a "very broad session" on the subject with many participants to hear views on this bill, "right after the debate on the petition that will take place shortly", in order "as soon as is possible to schedule it to be debated" in parliament, he said.

Pureza also said that the movement "expects that, after a debate that is already on a scale and a depth that is unprecedented in Portugal, this time and in this legislative session parliament will take on the responsibility of debating and hopefully approving a law that decriminalises assisted dying."

Public discussion of the subject was sparked last year when the head of Portugal's national nurses' association claimed that some doctors in the national health service had connived in assisted suicides for terminally ill patients at public hospitals, despite the fact that euthanasia is not legal in the country.

The Health Ministry on Monday ordered an urgent inquiry into the allegations.

At present, helping a patient to die is considered homicide and can carry a penalty of up to three years in prison.