Editorial – From ruling No. 242/2019 of the Constitutional Court to the Italian law on medically assisted death: a complex transition

On 10 March 2022, the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament approved with a large majority the draft law No. 3101 on medically assisted death (also called “assisted suicide”). There were 253 votes in favour, 117 against and one abstention. The approval of the law is, in fact, a response to the lively social pressure that has long been calling for assisted suicide to be made lawful in Italy, as it is in other European countries1. The existing law on the end of life, No. 219/2017, does not provide for the possibility of assisted suicide2,3. The text of the law, entitled “Provisions on medically assisted voluntary death”, will now have to be discussed in the Senate for the final vote. If definitively approved, the law would therefore exclude the punishability of medically assisted death, i.e., the self-suppressive act practiced and realized by the patient through technical support made available by a physician or a healthcare facility.