Law on assisted suicide: “We must hurry”

The law on assisted suicide, which has been in the Chamber for over 3 years, has finally found an outlet: “We chose to go to the Chamber on December 13 with unanimous agreement between the groups and it is a definitive date”, says Gilda Sportiello, group leader of the 5 Star Movement in Social Affairs Committee. “The 5 Star Movement is the group that has been asking for months to schedule this text in the classroom and our goal – he assures – is to approve it in the House as soon as possible, because Parliament is already late”.
Do the distances with the center-right that have emerged in recent months represent a danger?
“At this stage, a discussion process is underway on the merits of the provision. I would therefore speak of a discussion which aims to shorten distances. The speakers are making an important effort to find broad convergence ».
It was decided not to address the issue of euthanasia. Does this not discriminate against those who can self-administer a lethal drug and access assisted suicide by those who cannot because they are completely immobilized?
“We are talking about a basic text approved in the commission that moves within the perimeter of the Constitutional Court ruling. If you want to start a journey, you have to find a meeting point. The risk of leaving that perimeter is not getting anywhere: our goal is to approve a law that the country has been waiting for too long “.
The Vatican is opposed. The CEI asks to focus, rather, on palliative care.
«The two paths are not conflicting. So much so that among the changes by the speakers to the basic text, a passage is envisaged in which we speak precisely of palliative care: we too ask that they be implemented throughout the national territory because, although we already have an excellent law on this issue, they are not still guaranteed everywhere. In fact, one of the first acts of the Social Affairs commission was an investigation into the network of palliative care in Italian ».
If a law cannot be brought to fruition by the first months of 2022, in the spring there will be a referendum to decriminalize the murder of the consenting party. Do you agree with the question?
“I believe that the referendum has the great merit of having solicited political action and of having made it clear that the country is strongly calling for regulatory intervention. I believe that the country is far ahead of the ideological entrenchments of some political forces. It is clear that there is a regulatory vacuum and that an intervention by the parliament would intervene in an organic way, on the procedures, on the clinical evaluation committees and on other issues that a referendum cannot touch, because the referendum question cannot foresee it. This is why it is important and urgent that Parliament take on the responsibility of legislating on such a complex issue: it is our duty ”.