Assisted suicide continues to cause legal headaches in Italy

Last week, the Italian Constitutional Court was faced with the difficult question of assisted suicide once more. The court affirmed that the only guideline available to judge such matter remains verdict 242, pronounced in 2019, which, for the first time in Italian history, allowed for assisted suicide to be performed on Italian grounds upon certain specific conditions.

The case that the court had to deal with concerns a 44-year-old man named Massimiliano. He suffered from multiple sclerosis, which he deemed irreversible. However, it was illegal for him to receive assistance with his suicide in Italy. Several activists “came to his rescue”, including Felicetta Maltese, the philosopher Chiara Lalli and the well-known politician Marco Cappato. Together, they decided to bring Massimiliano to Switzerland, where it is legally easier to obtain such assistance. There, Massimiliano died in December 2022. Upon their return to Italy, Maltese, Lalli, and Cappato reported their actions to the police.

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Debate

It is not the first time that Marco Cappato has been involved in helping people to obtain assistance for committing suicide in Switzerland. This Milanese activist is known as one of the main promoters of legalising assisted suicide. His campaign received much publicity in 2017 when he chose to accompany the well-known artist DJ Fabo (Fabiano Antonani) to receive such assistance in Zürich (Switzerland) after a car accident had left him blind and quadriplegic. After his return to Italy, Cappato reported his actions to the police, just as he did again in the case of Massimiliano. The objective is obviously to provoke debate about a change in the law.

The case of DJ Fabo was taken up by the Constitutional Court, whose role is to evaluate whether a law is in line with the Italian Constitution adopted in 1948. In 2019, it pronounced the ground-breaking verdict: The law condemning assisted suicide was now judged as unconstitutional. The official verdict (verdict 242) affirmed that assistance for suicide should be granted on Italian territory under the following conditions:

1. The applicant must be affected by “irreversible pathology”;

2. The applicant must be affected by “physical or psychological sufferings that he deems absolutely intolerable”;

3. The applicant must be kept alive through means of treatment or life support;

4. The applicant must be able to make free and conscious decisions.

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Grey zone

The Constitutional Court required the government to work on a new law that would be in line with the verdict. But in spite of this, no changes have been brought to the law to this day. So, in the current prosecution, Massimiliano’s three helpers ought to be judged according to the same verdict 242. In the meantime, Marco Cappato continues his assistance activities.

The current legal grey zone has already opened the doors for assisted suicide to be performed on Italian grounds. The first case was recorded in the Marche region on June 16th, 2022. The position of the Constitutional Court, combined with Cappato’s acquittal, will probably motivate others to follow the same path. The general opinion toward assisted suicide is not changing as quickly as in other European nations. However, the public seems to be returning to pagan Roman culture when philosopher Seneca said: “The prospect of death is a consolation to me, and the only remedy against the injuries of life.”