In the Liguria Region, hearings have begun in the Health and Social Security Committee for the proposed law on the end of life, which sees the group leader of Linea Sharate, Gianni Pastorino, as the first signatory, and has been signed by almost all the opposition representatives.
The text traces the proposal promoted by the Luca Coscioni association and aims to give rapid and certain response times to those who request free access to medically assisted suicide.
Among the experts heard yesterday were Vladimiro Zagrebelsky, former judge of the European Court of Human Rights, and Filomena Gallo, national secretary of the “Luca Coscioni” association.
At the end of the regional commission, both were protagonists of a public meeting in the auditorium of the Carlo Felice Theater in Genoa, organized by Linea Shared.
“In Italy there is no lack of a national law on the end of life – clarified Zagrebelsky – the national law is article 580 of the penal code, on which the Constitutional Court intervened. After that, a new national law on palliative care could be introduced, which would be welcome. It is said that Italy lacks a law on euthanasia, but this is not true. It can be integrated, modified, but the law is there.”
Gallo echoed this: “Professor Zagrebelsky in the commission clarified that the ruling of the Constitutional Court is binding. That ruling is law. If someone today asks: ‘Is there a law in Italy that regulates or legalizes medical assistance in voluntary death?’, the answer is yes, because there is a ruling from the Council, which then invites the legislator to eliminate all discriminations that still exist regarding end-of-life choices”.
Zagrebelsky added that “it is a regional matter to organize and implement what the law says. The Ligurian one is a draft regional law integrating what derives from article 580 of the penal code, as integrated by the ruling of the Constitutional Court 242 of 2019″.
For the expert “it would be better if all the Regions moved to implement this law: it is in things that there may be differences between one territory and another, as happens for example with the essential levels of assistance. The discipline better be as clear as possible.”
According to Zagrebelsky, “this project has the advantage of giving the regional offices and the regional health service procedural certainties: the content and merit have already been decided by the Constitutional Court. This regional law would give security to the patient who asks to die and is in the conditions described by the Constitutional Court, but also to the regional health system which is obliged to intervene because the Constitutional Court has said that all these procedures must be done within the national health service” .
Filomena Gallo underlined that “the regional law proposal adds nothing compared to what has been established by the Constitutional Court and also provides that, when the legislator were to intervene with a law that also provides for the part of the tasks of the health companies local, the regional proposal lapses. There is no increase in healthcare spending. Saying no to this law means saying no to the sick and turning aside towards those who declare that they suffer intolerable and are left waiting for an answer”.
Finally, he recalled that “in recent years we have seen patients who have waited up to two years to receive a response, this bill sets certain and short times: 20 days”.
The regional group leader Gianni Pastorino said he was satisfied with the progress made so far and tried to speed up the time needed to get the law into the chamber: “Liguria is the first region to have entered into the merits with the hearings for a legislative proposal in mid-May we will continue the investigations in the commission. I hope to be able to bring and approve this law to the council by the summer, before the budget adjustment session, because by now the numbers would probably be there”.
The president of the Second Health and Social Security Commission Brunello Brunetto (Lega) is more cautious about timing: “We will take all the time needed to listen to all the people necessary to discuss and examine three fundamental issues: the ethical aspect and bioethical, the technical medical aspect and whether or not it is a matter of regional competence. There will be many other auditions.”
For Brunetto “the times are not predictable also because the commission cannot dedicate itself exclusively to this bill, no matter how pressing. It will take a few months, any less would mean acting with superficiality and presumption, debasing the topic.”
Then, President Brunetto underlined that it was “an honor to listen to Zagrebelsky: he could have limited himself to sending a memorandum, but instead he came in person” and reiterated his total support for the bill, as the president of the Giovanni Toti regional council.
Tags: life process started Liguria Region Zagrebelsky heard
