Rome, Mar. 12 (LaPresse) – “The decision of the Milan investigating judge creates a fundamental precedent that must now be taken into account by the Italian Parliament.” This was stated by Filomena Gallo and Marco Cappato, National Secretary and Treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Association. If the law presented by the Government and currently under discussion in the Senate were approved, it would cancel the right to voluntary assisted death, which led to yesterday’s dismissal. The Government’s law, in fact, would restrict the scope of ‘assisted suicide’ in Italy to only those “kept alive by life-sustaining treatments,” effectively only people attached to machines. This would exclude many terminal cancer patients and many people with neurodegenerative diseases, who, although dependent on life-sustaining treatments, are not attached to machines. It would therefore exclude precisely people in the conditions of Elena and Romano, who were not “kept alive by life-sustaining treatments,” forcing them to endure unbearable suffering like they did or to die in Switzerland. Judge Sara Cipolla clarified that constitutional case law also recognizes the right of people in their conditions not to be forced to endure unbearable suffering, as they had already lawfully refused life-support treatments, as also provided for by the law on informed consent and refusal of care. To ask the Government to withdraw the law and Parliament not to cancel these rights, the Luca Coscioni Association will organize a mobilization in squares across Italy from April 6 to 19 to demand that the Government withdraw the law, which: would exclude the National Health Service (and thus the Regions themselves) from these procedures; would limit the right to voluntary assisted death only to patients attached to a machine (thus excluding many terminal cancer patients or those with neurodegenerative diseases); would eliminate the role of local Ethics Committees, replaced by a national committee appointed by the government; and would nullify the value of advance healthcare directives (living wills) for those requesting voluntary assisted death.
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