Assisted suicide: Law professor sees favorable conditions for constitutionally compliant legislation

Professor Nicolò Zanon, an expert in constitutional law at the University of Milan, believes that sufficient grounds exist to develop provincial or regional legislation on assisted suicide that complies with the Italian Constitution. He made these remarks during hearings in the fourth commission concerning a popular initiative bill on the matter.

“

there are sufficient elements to build a provincial or regional discipline in line with the Constitution.

Zanon explained that a recent ruling by the Constitutional Court on a Tuscan end-of-life law recognized that fundamental principles can be derived from existing legislation. This allows regional authorities to regulate organizational and procedural aspects of medically assisted suicide requests. However, he cautioned that the ruling imposes precise limitations, preventing regional legislatures from adopting national principles as their own autonomous discipline.

"A future intervention by the state legislature is now inevitable," Zanon concluded, adding that meanwhile, it is legitimate for regions and autonomous provinces to enact their own laws. The discussion also involved representatives from the Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Integrata of Trentino, along with experts from the ethics committee and biodiritto scholars.

“

the sentence sets precise limits.

Lucia Galvagni, president of the ethics committee for clinical practice at the Bruno Kessler Foundation, highlighted the committee's role. Federica Bresciani, a nursing manager for primary care at Asuit, stressed the importance of having a nursing representative with expertise in palliative care on the commission. Gino Gobber, director of the primary care department at Asuit, expressed concern that requests for medically assisted suicide should stem from genuinely free and conscious decisions, not from deficiencies in care, social support, or relationships.

“

A future intervention by the state legislature is now inevitable.

Fabio Valcanover, the primary signatory of the bill, stated that while a law would not resolve all critical issues, it would at least help overcome the current uncertainty surrounding end-of-life decisions.

“

We must avoid that requests for medically assisted suicide may arise from care, social or relational deficiencies rather than from a truly free and conscious decision of the person.