The court said judges must decide “on the basis of the principles already outlined in a sentence issued in 2019 whether a person can be indicted in relation to the practice of assisted suicide”.
The requirements outlined in the 2019 sentence included the presence of an irreversible pathology and unbearable physical or psychological suffering for the patient, among others.
The top court noted that, in the absence of a law in Italy regulating the matter, the requirements to access assisted suicide remain those established by sentence n.242 of 2019.
They added those requirements must be ascertained by the national healthcare service.
The court moreover expressed the “strong hope that the legislator and the national healthcare service will ensure the concrete and punctual implementation of the principles set by its previous sentence”.
They also did not rule out the “possibility of the legislator dictating a different set of rules, in the respect of the principles cited today”.
The Constitutional Court once again urged to “guarantee to all patients the effective possibility of accessing appropriate palliative care to control their suffering”.
ANSA
