English translation of the book published by Bonomia University Press, 2021
Press Eelease of the Constitutional Court of 25 Septemper 2019
Text of the commentary exposed at the conference of professor Francesco Viganò, judge at the Constitutional Court, on “The Italian Criminal Law in the light of the Constitution and the Human Rights in the 21st century: five relevant judgments of the Italian Constitutional Court in the biennium 2018-2019”, given on 5 July 2019, in Santiago de Chile (Universidad Diego Portales), within the framework of the II Italo-Chilean Seminar on Criminal Justice. The discussant raises four main issues about the Order n. 207/2018 of the Italian Constitutional Court concerning the crime of assisted suicide: (1) Does the Court argue the unconstitutionality of the 219/2017 Act? (2) Does the Court overcome, although under certain conditions, the distinction between the withdrawal of consent to medical treatment and assisted suicide or euthanasia? (3) Would the regulation of assisted suicide admit a right to conscientious objection? (4) Which is the functional limit, in this context, of the principle of equality and reasonableness?
A few days ago, the Italian Constitutional law issued its first decision on assisted suicide, in a case concerning a civil rights activist who had accompanied a tetraplegic young man to a Swiss clinic, where he was helped to die. The Court held that the existing criminal legislation, which sets forth a general prohibition to assist anyone to commit suicide, is overbroad in respect to (i) patients suffering from an incurable disease (ii) that causes them severe and subjectively intolerable pain and distress, and (iii) are kept alive by life-sustaining treatments, but (iv) retain full mental capacity. However, in view of the necessity of a detailed regulation of the matter, the Court refrained for the moment from declaring void the provision, and adjourned the case to a new hearing next year, in order to give Parliament the opportunity to establish an appropriate legislative framework, in line with the principles set forth in the decision
A comment on the decision no. 207 of 2018 by the Italian Constitutional Court, that – with the primary aim to let the Parliament enact appropriate measures – decided to defer the constitutional ruling on article 580 of the Italian Criminal Code (crime of aiding suicide). This paper is also published on www.diritticomparati.it
I principi costituzionali e i diritti umani sanciti nella CEDU pongono al centro del sistema dei valori la persona e la sua libertà di autodeterminazione in relazione alla gestione dei propri beni e dei propri diritti individuali. Si riattualizza così l’interrogativo sul ruolo penale del fattore “consenso dell’avente diritto” in un contesto giuridico moderno, globale, “umano”.