End of life, the shadow of unconstitutionality on the majority text
The Consulta will express its opinion on the 8th
In the wake of what is foreseen by the rulings of the Constitutional Court, an exception is introduced to the punishability foreseen for those who help a person to die, but only under certain conditions.
Months and months of debate. The long discussion of the restricted committee of the Justice and Health Commissions of the Senate to find a compromise. Then, on July 2, the green light to the basic text of the bill supported by the majority on “ medically assisted death” . Now the center-right wants to bring it to the Chamber between July 15 and 17 and then transmit it to the Chamber. Any amendments, however, must be presented by the 8th. A date marked in red for another reason too: that day the Consulta will express its opinion on euthanasia for the first time.
The majority text represents a starting point, of course, but it is already causing discussion. The Luca Coscioni Association, which has been dealing with the issue for years, held a press conference yesterday to denounce the serious consequences that such a text, if approved, could have. And in the meantime it continues to collect signatures for a popular initiative bill to legalize euthanasia. Returning to the center-right text, the association's national secretary Filomena Gallo denounces " evident profiles of unconstitutionality already in its initial structure because it aims to cancel rights recognized by the legal system and reaffirmed by the Constitutional Court". Going into the merits, the articles of the basic text are four. The first almost seems like a declaration of intent and is self-explanatory through the title: "Inviolability and unavailability of the right to life" . A point, says Gallo, “in contrast with sentence 242/2019 and with articles 2 and 32 of the Constitution” because “ life is a fundamental good, but not an unconditional duty ”. Article 2 instead establishes a modification of the Penal Code, specifically of article 580, which punishes the crime of “ incitement or aiding suicide”.
In the wake of what is foreseen by the rulings of the Constitutional Court, an exception is introduced to the punishability foreseen for those who help a person to die, but only under certain conditions. The person who wants to die must be of age, capable of understanding and willing, his desire to die must have formed in a “free, autonomous and conscious” way and must be kept alive by treatments that replace vital functions, whereas previously the wording was “life-sustaining treatments” , therefore broader. In this way, underlines Marco Cappato , the treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Association, access is restricted “ only to people connected to machinery” . Not only that: the text establishes that the person must be affected by an irreversible pathology with intolerable physical and psychological suffering, despite being included in a (mandatory) palliative care path. A point, this last one, absent in the rulings of the Constitutional Court. And it is precisely on palliative care that the focus of Article 3 is, which strengthens it and provides for the appointment of a commissioner for Regions that are in default on this point.
The regional plans will be monitored by the National Agency for Regional Health Services ( AGENAS ), a body that supports the Ministry of Health. Finally, Article 4, the most centralizing: it introduces the " National Evaluation Committee" (no longer the "Ethics Committee " as initially proposed amid opposition controversy), a body composed of 7 people - appointed by decree of the President of the Council - who will have the task of verifying the conditions of those requesting access to medically assisted death. "Since it is a government appointment, the right will fill it with people who are against and hostile to the right to freedom of choice", Cappato had said on these pages, underlining how in this way the aim was in reality to "do away with the national health service" (today in fact it is the Local Health Authorities, on the indication of the Consulta, that decide on individual cases ). But privatization is not the main concern because, Cappato explains, " this law does not really open up to a private system: it directly prevents access to the right, changing the parameters established by the Constitutional Court" . And he concludes: “The text does not aim to privatize aid in voluntary death, but to prohibit it, as demonstrated by the applause received from the Vatican”.
l'Unità
