LISBON, May 18 — Portugal’s Catholic church urged families and health workers against carrying out euthanasia after a law was signed decriminalising the practice this week.

Conservative President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa signed the legislation on Tuesday after a bill on the matter was passed by Parliament on Friday.

"Once again, we reiterate the call for families and health workers, who must always be guaranteed conscientious objectors, to categorically reject the possibilities opened up by the legalisation of euthanasia” the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (CEP) said in a statement.

"The entry into force of this law represents a clear step back in civilisation, we maintain the hope that it may be revoked and that human life, which is an invaluable gift, will once again be valued and defended,” the collective body of the national church and Roman Catholic Church in the country added.

Last week, Pope Francis was quoted by local media as saying "Today I am very sad, because in the country where Our Lady appeared, a law was enacted to kill.”

A majority of lawmakers had already voted four times in favour of decriminalising assisted dying over the past three years.

But the text faced objections from the constitutional court and De Sousa, a practising Catholic.

The law had been redrafted several times to take into account remarks by De Sousa, who has twice vetoed it, and after being rejected twice by the constitutional court, which had pointed to certain "inaccuracies”.

The final version of the law states that euthanasia is only allowed in cases where "medically assisted suicide is impossible due to a physical incapacitation of the patient”.

Following the publication of the decrees, the law could come into force next autumn, according to estimates cited by the local press.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are currently allowed in a handful of European countries, such as the Benelux countries, which were the first to allow it, and neighbouring Spain. — AFP