In Italy the first was carried out assisted suicide regulated by a regional law: on May 17, 2025 Daniele Pieroni, 60 -year -old writer, he freely chose to put an end to his life by reason of the Judgment 242/2019 from the Constitutional Court and of the Law 16/2025 of the Tuscany Region issued in March (and contested by the current government).
Since 2008 Pieroni was suffering from Parkinson’s diseasewhich had caused him a serious form of dysphagia Because of which it was impossible to take food and liquids from the mouth. To keep him alive, therefore, it was one Peg (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy), or a tube inserted in the stomach, active for 21 hours per day, which allowed him to receive food and water in liquid form. Assisted suicide took place through self-infusion of a lethal drug in the presence of a medical team of the local ASL.
But, therefore, in Italy it is possible resort freely to assisted suicide? Not exactly. This theme, in fact, is still at the center of a regulatory vacuum: therefore, there is no one national law that regulates methods, timing or procedures with which it is possible to resort to the end of life. At the moment, however, there are two requests to Parliament by the Constitutional Court to issue a specific law on the end of life. In this regard, the Senate planned a July 17 discussion on the bill relating to the “provisions on medically assisted death”.
Assisted suicide in Italy: the turning point with the case of DJ Fabo and the first sentence of the Constitutional Court
In reality, in Italy the assisted suicide has always been prohibited, by virtue of the article 580 of the Criminal Codewhich punishes with imprisonment, from 5 to 12 years, “anyone who determines others to suicide or strengthens the other’s purpose of suicide, or facilitates their execution in any way”.
In 2017, however, there is a turning point with the case of DJ Fabo: After remaining tetraplegic due to a car accident, the DJ Fabiano Antoniani He decides to end his physical suffering by resorting to assisted suicide at a clinic in Switzerland, where the practice is legal, accompanied by the activist Marco Cappato. Immediately after the death of Dj Fabo, Cappato self -denounces, kicks off a judicial trial that has reached the Constitutional Court.
Two years after the death of Dj Fabo, in fact, the Constitutional Court pronounces the historic Judgment 242/2019declaring partially illegitimate Article 580 of the criminal code and establishing that the help to suicide is not punishable in the event that specific conditions exist. Specifically, i requirements To which the Constitutional Court refers are:
- theirreversibility of pathology of which the person who uses assisted suicide is affected;
- the presence of intolerable suffering of the patient, who must bear physical or psychological pains that he considers unbearable;
- there dependence on machinery or therapies of vital support;
- there ability to make decisions in a free and conscious way.
The latter point is particularly important because, by definition, in assisted suicide it is the patient himself who is self -administration the drugassisted by a doctor or another figure who takes care of getting the drug.
At that point, the Constitutional Court entrusts to Parliament the task of producing a new law that regulates methods, timing and procedures necessary to resort to assisted suicide.
At what point we are with assisted suicide: the regulatory vacuum and the second intervention of the Court
Despite the 2019 sentence, however, the Parliament (as the owner of legislative power, that is the power to propose and adopt laws) has not yet intervened, generating a “regulatory vacuum»: The situation, therefore, is unclear and uncertainnot existing a specific law capable of indicating citizens the limits within which it is possible to implement. Precisely because of this regulatory vacuum, the Constitutional Court He decides to intervene one second time, pronouncing the sentence 135/2024.
In this case, the Court reiterates what has already been established in 2019, but also worries about expand the interpretation of the requirements specified in the previous sentence and necessary to resort to assisted suicide. Specifically, they are also included in the “vital support treatments” also of the less invasive proceduressuch as manual evacuation or mucus suction, and above all, the right to refuse a vital support treatment.
Once again the Constitutional Court refers to Parliament the task of intervening to fill the legislative emptiness. At the moment, the Senate has scheduled for the July 17, 2025 The discussion of the DDL n.104, relating to the “provisions on medically assisted death”, but the problem will not be resolved in short time.
What the Tuscan regional law says: times and methods of access to assisted suicide
But, therefore, how it came to the law of Tuscany region? By not existing a national law that regulates the issue of assisted suicide, the regions can therefore intervene to adopt regional ruleswhich therefore do not produce effects at national level but are within their regional borders. There health protectionin fact, is a subject of Competition legislation: This means that, with regard to this issue, the regions can promulgate as the State.
Precisely for this reason, the Tuscany Region has decided to intervene independently, approving the Law 16/2025 (entered into force on March 17, 2025) with the aim of implementing the provisions of the Constitutional Court in the two sentences of 2019 and 2024.
In particular, the Tuscan law provides for the establishment of a Permanent multidisciplinary commission composed of a medical team in charge of verifying the existence of the requirements of access to medically assisted suicide (established by the Constitutional Court in 2019).
This verification procedure must be concluded by 20 days from receipt of the application: the final outcome, then, must be communicated to the person affected by theASL of competence. If the Commission is pronounced in favor, the ASL has a week of time To provide all the support necessary for the patient to achieve assisted suicide, which is recognized as one Free medical performance. The interested party, however, can decide at any time to escape the procedure.
At the moment, Tuscany is theThe only Italian region To have regulated the theme of assisted suicide: in January 2024 also the Veneto He tried to intervene on the topic, but the law obtained 25 votes in favor and 25 against (of which 3 abstains, also considering these as contrary votes), causing one split within thecenter -right administration.
