Italy’s Constitutional Court rejected a request Tuesday to conduct a national referendum on modifying the criminal law to allow patients suffering from incurable illnesses or unbearable pain to exercise their right to die.
Article 579 of the Criminal Code of Italy penalizes the act of killing someone even with their consent with a sentence of up to 15 years. To allow for assisted suicide or euthanasia, pro-right-to-die advocates requested a national referendum to repeal this provision. They had secured one million signatures in support last year via a petition—twice the number needed to make such a request. However, the court, the highest Italian court dealing with constitutional matters, declared this request inadmissible. It held such a repeal would fail to guarantee “minimum protection” to humans in general and too weak and vulnerable persons in specific. It also further opined that such protection was a constitutional necessity.
The second part of Article 579, against which no referendum is sought, safeguards against abuse of assisted suicide or euthanasia by providing that if this consent was obtained from a minor, a person under the influence of alcohol or drugs, a person with an intellectual disability or through force or fraud, it is treated as murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 21 years.
Marco Cappato, a politician and a leader of the right-to-die movement, stated the decision was “bad news” for those suffering unbearably since they would continue to suffer against their will after receiving palliative care. Cappato faced legal action in 2017 for “inciting or assisting suicide” since he accompanied Fabiano “Fabo” Antoniani, a famous musician, to a Swiss death-with-dignity facility. 40-year-old Antoniani, who had become tetraplegic and entirely visually impaired after an accident, had opted for assisted suicide.
While Article 580 lays down a punishment of imprisonment of up to 12 years for “inciting or assisting” another person to commit suicide, the court in 2019 acquitted Cappato, carving out an exception to allow assisted suicide for patients on life support facing intolerable physical or psychological suffering. Drawing a distinction between inciting suicide and “merely contributing to the fulfillment of the free decision of a person,” the court held the criminalization of assisted suicide violated the principle of proportionality of punishment. However, it mandated the prior approval of a public health facility and an ethics committee.
In a 2018 hearing in Cappato’s case, the court had ordered the Italian Parliament to amend the law to allow for assisted suicide, deciding it was no different in principle from the “right to cease treatment or heavy sedation” already available in Italian law. However, no such law has been passed.
