End of life, the Government appeals against Emilia-Romagna

The clash between Giorgia Meloni’s Government and the Emilia-Romagna Region on assisted suicide is no holds barred. Now the tug of war moves to the courtrooms, with the executive effectively challenging an administrative measure from the Region. In particular, the resolution which, by giving guidelines to the local health authorities, provides technical instructions on how to follow up on any requests for assisted suicide.

«On 12 April the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Health filed an appeal with the Emilia-Romagna Regional Administrative Court against the Region, in particular against the Health of the Person health directorate, to request the annulment of the council resolutions which implemented medically assisted suicide in our Region – said the regional councilor of Forza Italia, Valentina Castaldini – The reasons, reported in over 20 pages of the document, highlight the absolute lack of power of the Viale Aldo Moro institution regarding the topic and the contradictory and illogical nature of the reasons introduced in the guidelines sent to healthcare companies for the management of medically assisted suicide ”.

Councilor Castaldini, who also presented her own appeal on the matter, says she is “happy that the government, with this formal act, confirms and strengthens the work of recent months, the executive considered that the path of the appeal that I opened was that correct and that there were all the means to annul the resolutions, as I have always maintained”.

The regional law rejected in Veneto

The resolutions for access to the end of life are from last February, they represent the path chosen by Viale Aldo Moro to “dribble” political clashes that could have scuttled the law once discussed in the chamber, as happened shortly before in Veneto where the governor Northern League member Luca Zaia had to suffer the dissent of his own party colleagues and the Democratic Party saw the abstention of councilor Anna Maria Bigon, with an endless aftermath of controversy.

the case

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The right has always contested this administrative approach of the Region and now the appeal of the government led by Giorgia Meloni is added to the appeal of the Forzista. The front of individual rights and freedoms is very hot, even after the amendment by the Brothers of Italy to the Pnrr to allow the entry of pro-life associations into counseling centers which has seen a real outcry in Emilia-Romagna .

On assisted suicide at the moment there are therefore two appeals to the TAR, that of councilor Castaldini was presented last March together with a group of associations, asking for the annulment of the regional resolution of 5 February and of all the consequent decisions of the General Directorate , but has not yet requested suspension. This is because at the moment there are no requests for assisted suicide at the local health authorities, in more than two months no practices of this kind have arrived on the desks of the health directors who are the first interlocutors. The cases established by the Constitutional Court for assisted suicide (the patient must be an adult, capable of understanding and wanting, kept alive by life support treatments, suffering from an irreversible clinical condition, a source of intolerable suffering) greatly narrows the field. Especially in contexts, such as that of Emilia-Romagna where palliative care is highly developed and widespread.