Right-to-die legislation in Italy: a tale of two parties
20 March 2023
©
Associazione Luca Coscioni per la Libertà di Ricerca Scientifica (2023)
Blog contributed by Piero Alberti, 5th year Medical Student, University of Oxford - Wadham College
The Ethox Centre provides medical ethics and law teaching for medical students in Oxford. This blog post accompanies an essay by 5th year student Piero Alberti: Right-to-die legislation in Italy: a tale of two parties.The essay was originally submitted for the Andrew Markus Essay Prize.
The history of right-to-die legislation in Italy is not only an issue of personal importance for me, but also an important case study for those interested in medical ethics on a global scale. As a child, I remember the amazement of my family at the extent to which the Welby and Englaro cases had thrown Italy’s institutions into a constitutional crisis. Years later, my school organised debates and discussions about Marco Cappato’s civil disobedience actions in support of DJ Fabo’s assisted suicide.
Photo: 24th December 2006. Mina Welby and Marco Cappato speak at Piergiorgio Welby’s secular funeral in Rome.
As a medical student, I decided to write this essay following the Italian Constitutional Court’s decision to quash the proposed 2022 referendum on euthanasia legalisation, which several friends of mine had campaigned for. At the start, I mostly saw it as an opportunity to make sense of a complex history with contradictory judicial rulings and legislative changes. Yet, during my research I came across many parallels that convinced me of how lessons from Italy’s case went beyond its national borders.
Politically, it was inspiring to observe how two decades of citizen’s campaigns were able to achieve a partial legalisation of assisted suicide in a country where the bioethical debate is dominated by the Catholic Church and its opposition to all forms of euthanasia.
From a legal perspective, this is an interesting case of how a statutory legal system such as the Italian one was able to incorporate major changes to its criminal and civil legislation largely through the accumulation of judicial precedents.
Most importantly, however, the Italian case is a blueprint for how countries, in particular Catholic-majority ones, may gradually develop structured legal frameworks around citizens' right to die. As may be expected, this is unlikely to happen through individual episodes of sweeping legislative intervention. Rather, diverse and country-specific frameworks will arise through a heterogenous intersection of judicial responses and single legislative changes, with alternating milestones and setbacks following the ebb and flow of politics and government.
Photo: July 2022 – Federico Carboni, the first person to access assisted suicide under Italy’s existing legal framework. Carboni, previously known as ‘Mario’, gave permission for his name and image to be made public after his death.
For those wishing to usher in such changes, the message is that the road is long and action must be taken on all fronts, planning for the long term. For those rightly concerned about the potential pitfalls and slippery slopes of a matter this controversial, the silver lining is that there will be several steps at which to intervene to make sure that increases in citizens’ individual liberty are balanced with states’ duty to protect human life.
Read the full essay: Right-to-die legislation in Italy: a tale of two parties
Piero Alberti, 5th year Medical Student, Oxford University - Wadham College
Photo credits – Associazione Luca Coscioni per la Libertà di Ricerca Scientifica (2023)