This book analyses the political and public debates about euthanasia in Portugal. Utilising petitions submitted to Parliament, legislative bills, parliamentary debates, opinion articles in newspapers, and documents published by the Catholic Church, it examines this sensitive issue through the theoretical lens of morality politics. It does so by studying the process of political dispute between advocacy coalitions formed by political parties and societal actors. This is the first book to comprehensively analyse a morality issue in Portugal, a predominantly Catholic country that has taken an innovative and liberal stance on many morality issues over the last two decades. It will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, political science, public policy and bioethics, as well as policymakers and other interest groups.

Inês Santos Almeida is a Researcher in Political Science at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Her research interests include policy processes, morality policies, and party politics.

Luís F. Mota is an Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic of Leiria Polytechnic University, Portugal, and a full researcher at the Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policy (GOVCOPP), University of Aveiro, Portugal. His research interests include policymaking processes, network governance, public sector reforms and civil society organisations.

Chapter 1- Introduction.- Chapter 2- Policy formulation, Morality issues and Euthanasia: A Literature Review.- Chapter 3- The parliamentary debate on euthanasia in Portugal: a tale in six rounds. -Chapter 4-. Ayes or Nos: Positions and used arguments by Political Parties at the Parliamentary debates. -Chapter 5- . The (un)used consultation processes: positions and arguments from Organizational Experts.- Chapter 6.-Does my voice also count? Positions and arguments during by Interest Groups in the parliamentary debate.- Chapter 7- The extra-parliamentary public debate on Euthanasia: positions expressed by the hierarchy of the Portuguese Catholic church and in the written media.- Chapter 8- Advocacy Coalitions in the debate on euthanasia.- Chapter 9- Conclusions