The timetable may be politically delicate for Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a Catholic, President and a new candidate for Belem, as it may still force him to make some decision on the matter during the presidential election campaign.

If the legislative process is completed and the law is sent in the first 15 days of January to the Belem Palace, the time limits for the veto, for example, do not expire until 24 January, the day of the elections - the President has up to 20 days to do so.

But the same may no longer be the case with a tighter deadline (eight days) for sending the euthanasia law to the Constitutional Court (TC) that will be approved in parliament.

A practicing Catholic, Marcelo promised to leave "personal positions" out at the time of enacting laws, if he has no legal or constitutional doubts, when he was questioned about euthanasia in the previous campaign in 2015.

The law has sufficient parliamentary support to pass the final vote. Nine months ago, in February, it was passed by a left-wing majority, despite some divisions in the PS, which was joined by the NAP and the Liberal Initiative.

The law provides that only people over the age of 18, with no mental problems or illnesses, in a situation of suffering and incurable illness can ask for medically assisted death, through a doctor, and guarantees the conditions under which the health professional is not punished in court.