The first assisted suicide was authorized in November 2021 in Italy
Tuscany became the first Italian region to adopt a regulation that opens the way for assisted suicide for patients in great suffering, after decriminalization, under certain conditions, in September 2019.
“The bill (…) was approved” with 27 votes in favor and 13 against, announced the president of the Tuscan Parliament, Antonio Mazzeo.
In September 2019, the Italian Constitutional Court established the necessary conditions for a patient to have access to assisted suicide without the person who assists him being criminally processed.
This instance stressed that assisted suicide could only refer to patients “kept alive by essential treatments” and “suffering from irreversible pathology, a source of physical and psychological suffering considered unbearable, but fully capable of making free and conscious decisions”.
The Italian Parliament should have legislated, but due to the strong Catholic tradition in the country, nothing has been done, so the Luca Costioni Association, which campaigns for euthanasia on the Peninsula, presented to various regions a project that regulates access to assisted suicide, being being Tuscany the first to adopt it.
This regulation provides that, within 15 days of its entry into force, regional health authorities must create a multidisciplinary medical committee, consisting of at least one psychiatrist and a psychologist, to analyze the requests of people who want to access to assisted suicide.
Upon receipt of the request, the commission will have 20 days to answer and, if the answer is positive, the patient may decide if he intends to finish his days at home or in a health unit.
The regulation also provides that the patient may, at any time, interrupt this path that leads to assisted suicide.
The first assisted suicide was authorized in November 2021 in Italy, where the practice was previously punishable by a sentence of 5 to 12 years in prison.
The patient, Federico Carboni – presented until his death under the pseudonym of “Mario” in the media, to preserve his privacy – died in June 2022, at 44, after injecting a medicine in himself. This trucker was quadriplegic in 2010 after a road accident.
Although the patient’s suicide was allowed by the decision of the Constitutional Court, this was only possible after a long procedure.
Regulation such as the one adopted on Tuesday in Tuscany should facilitate procedures in the future.
