Tuscany becomes first region in Italy to legalize euthanasia

(Patria) - Tuscany yesterday adopted the law on the right to die, becoming the first region in the predominantly Catholic Italy to regulate assisted suicide in a country without a national law on this controversial topic.

The Italian Constitutional Court legalized the procedure in 2019 and called on parliament to pass a law that would provide a clear legal framework. The call went unanswered as politicians at the national level avoid the issue, Reuters writes.

The Tuscan regional law, passed with 27 votes in favor and 13 against, defines how to handle requests for assisted suicide, including the obligation for a medical board to review the application within 30 days.

If the criteria are met, the regional health service must provide the individual with the necessary preparations and medical staff within ten days, unless the patient wishes their doctor to perform the procedure.

The law allows doctors to refuse to participate for moral or ethical reasons, following the line of conscientious objection that exists at the national level in Italy for abortion.

Before the adoption of the law, the conservative Catholic organization Pro Vita Famiglia criticized Tuscany for turning into a kind of Italian Switzerland, where, it claims, state-sanctioned death has been introduced to get rid of the sick, frail, old, and lonely.

Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since the late 1940s.

Healthcare in Italy is largely under the jurisdiction of the regions, and Tuscany is governed by the center-left. At the national level, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government strongly opposes euthanasia.

A law on the right to die was also debated last year in the regional assembly of the Veneto region, led by the right, and the measure was just one vote short of passing, with divisions within both the right and the left.

In 2019, the Constitutional Court decriminalized euthanasia for patients with incurable diseases causing unbearable pain who have expressed a desire to die.

Despite this, regional authorities continue to refuse to approve requests for assisted suicide, which is why the Luca Coscioni association, an advocate for euthanasia, launched a campaign for clearer legislation.

This organization wants to introduce euthanasia laws in each of the 20 Italian regions, and its campaign inspired the measure in Tuscany, as well as the unsuccessful one in Veneto.