The map of assisted suicide in the world, only in Italy is “life support” required

Only in Italy – and in no other country in the world – is assisted suicide linked to the fact that the patient is kept alive for life-sustaining treatment. The map shows it (a this link) on legislation regarding assisted suicide in all countries of the world, summary of ainvestigation carried out by lawyer Alessia Cicatelliboard member of the Luca Coscioni association for freedom of scientific research.

«Foreign legislation provides common requirements: reaching the age of majority, the ability to self-determine, being affected by irreversible illnesses or conditions, sources of intolerable suffering», explains Marco Cappato, treasurer of the Coscioni association, «But never, in no law currently in force in the rest of the world, is there also the requirement of dependence on life-sustaining treatment».

When she expressed herself on the DJ Fabo case, the Constitutional Court could not go further and encroach on the legislative power of Parliament, identifying cases other than the one on which it was called upon to express its opinion. This is why, since Fabiano Antoniani was kept alive by life-sustaining treatments, this – with ruling 242/2019 of the Constitutional Court on the Cappato/Antoniani case – it has become a necessary requirement to be able to legally access assisted suicide in Italy.

This requirement, however, without legislative intervention by Parliament requested by the Consulta, it can be discriminatory, as it was, for example, for Sibilla Barbieri. “Think of the majority of cancer patients, even terminal ones, who want to put an end to their suffering, but cannot access assisted suicide because they are not dependent on life support treatment in the strict sense,” declared Filomena Gallo, national secretary of the Luca Coscioni Association. «And it is on this requirement that again the Council is called to intervene following a question of constitutional legitimacy raised by the investigating judge of Florence following the help provided to Massimiliano by Chiara Lalli, Felicetta Maltese and Marco Cappato”. And it is precisely the procedure opened regarding the help provided to Massimiliano the opportunity to define the contours of the “life support” criterion which – explains Cappato, «as Alessia Cicatelli's research highlights, does not exist in any other legislation».