His comments came after the regional council in his native Veneto rejected a bill regulating medically assisted suicide for terminally ill patients despite it having the backing of centre-right governor Luca Zaia.
“The defence of life is an issue of ours,” said Parolin.
“Life must be defended in all its stages, dimensions, and expressions. From its natural beginning to its natural end,” he added.
On Tuesday, the Veneto regional council rejected a bill presented by the right-to-die Coscioni association after two of the five articles failed to receive the necessary absolute majority in order to pass.
The legislative proposal, which sought to regulate the direct involvement of the national health service in assisted suicide on the basis of a 2019 ruling by the Constitutional Court, divided the centre-right majority in the region.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI) and Forza Italia voted against it, while part of the League, including Governor Zaia, voted in favour of it, along with the opposition.
“I am sorry that some misinterpreted the proposal discussed in Veneto as ‘instituting the end of life’,” said Zaia after the vote.
“It did not institute anything, but rather only established the means and timeframe of response to the sick, and the way in which the local health authorities were to be involved,” he added.
Zaia added that even though the law didn’t pass, “terminally ill patients with certain characteristics know that they can still present their requests [for medically assisted suicide], based on the ruling of the Constitutional Court”, named after right-to-die campaigner Marco Cappato which makes assisted suicide permissible in some circumstances.
ANSA
