On Tuesday, Italy constitutional court rejected a proposal to hold a voter referendum on voluntary euthanasia. It imposes the burden of legislation on national legislators, who have long ceased to function to agree on right-to-die rules. The referendum received 1.2 million signatures, much beyond the 500,000 required for a popular vote to modify current legislation.
The bill would have recommended modifications to the country’s murder laws, abolishing penalties for individuals who carry out the requests of patients with incurable conditions or unbearable agony to die. However, in a statement issued last night, the court said that repealing punishments would not safeguard the minimum constitutional standards governing the protection of human life, “particularly for the weak and the vulnerable.”
What are the existing laws?
Anyone who assists another person in committing suicide in Italy is subject to a five-to-twelve-year prison sentence. In a 2019 judgment, the court decriminalized assisted suicide under some conditions if local health authorities and an ethics board approved. However, it also asked parliament to pass a statute decriminalizing assisted suicide. This is if the individual who wants to terminate their life is enduring “intolerable suffering.”
Anyone failing to fit into the 2019 law’s definition of assisted suicide has no legal remedy in Italy. However, negotiators are on the same subject since 2019. They are forcing referendum organizers to start compiling signatures for a euthanasia vote. When parliament is not able to reach an agreement on subjects such as abortion and divorce rights, such referendums have frequently been in use in recent decades to introduce progressive laws.
In December, a proposed law was ultimately introduced in parliament. However, the ruling coalition’s parties are still not on the same page. A vote scheduled for last week was postponed pending the outcome of the court case.
Marco Cappato, whose involvement in assisted suicide led to the 2019 ruling, called the court’s latest decision “bad news for those who suffer and must continue to suffer unbearable misery against their will.”
Political Parties of Italy remain split on Euthanasia
“I think it is even worse news for democracy,” Cappato said. “It would have been a great occasion to connect the social reality with the institutions, which are very inattentive on this subject.”
He added, ” I think we are close to the result: legal euthanasia rather than the clandestine euthanasia that already exists in this country.”
Campaign group Luca Coscioni Association, which organized the petition, said it would not stop fighting. “The road to legalizing euthanasia does not stop here. The court’s cancellation of the referendum makes the road longer and more torturous. For many people, it means an extra burden of suffering. But the path we must take is clear,” the group said in a statement. Pope Francis last week went to declare “life is a right, not death, which should be welcomed not administered.”
Following the ruling, Enrico Letta stated that it was now up to parliament to pass a concrete law. The PD is the third-largest political party in parliament, and it is a member of Mario Draghi’s coalition government. The topic continues to divide Italy’s political parties, with the center-left supporting it and the center-right opposing it.
