Three and a half years after the first order of the Constitutional Court in November 2018 that urged Parliament to pass a law on assisted suicide, the law takes the first step with the approval by the Chamber, where the attempts of the center-right to bury the law the blows of secret votes had no effect.
The yellow-red majority that supports the law held up, and in the end there were 253 yeses and no 117, with one abstaining, the blue Simone Baldelli.
Indeed, six deputies from Fi and five from Coraggio Italia also lined up in favor of the measure, while inside Italia Viva (which had left free to vote) seven voted against.
Now the law passes to the Senate where the situation, however, could become complicated for the supporters of the End of Life given the smaller numbers.
The November 2018 order of the Council was followed a year later by a ruling by the Court declaring the crime of assisting suicide partially unconstitutional, in the sentence on the Dj Fabo-Cappato case.
In it he indicated to Parliament four pillars for a law on assisted suicide: that the patient is able to understand and want;
that he is suffering from a non-reversible disease;
that he has intolerable mental or physical suffering;
which depends on vital aids.
These four conditions for access to "medically assisted voluntary death" (this is the official name of the law) are the heart of the provision approved by the Chamber, after a complex mediation by the speakers, Alfredo Bazoli (Pd) and Nicola Provenza (M5s).
These have already accepted in the Commission a series of requests from the center-right, starting with the possibility of conscientious objection for health professionals, also requested by the CEI.
Furthermore, it has been foreseen that the patient's suffering is "physical and mental" and not "physical or psychic";
and again, the patient must be kept alive by life-sustaining health treatments.
Two points that the critics argue are in contrast with the stakes indicated by the Council.
The Luca Coscioni association, promoter of the referendum on euthanasia, and the Italian Radicals have asked the Senate to modify at least this point.
"With the first green light in the Chamber - the Minister for Relations with Parliament Federico D'Incà rejoices - the Parliament is getting back in tune with the country";
concept highlighted by the parties that supported the law (from the secretary of the Democratic Party Enrico Letta to the leader of Leu Federico Fornaro).
The center-right everything, from Antonio Palmieri and Pierantonio Zanettin of Fi, to Carolina Varchi (Fdi), Alessandro Pagano (Lega) and Fabiola Bologna (Ci) argued that the law opens the doors in the future to euthanasia, as happened in Belgium or the Netherlands.
Thesis rejected by Graziano Delrio of the Pd.
The hope has come from the center-left and the M5s that the Senate will now push the law forward and not put it down as was the case with the Zan bill.
The leader of the Democratic Party Simona Malpezzi has undertaken to make the law proceed at Palazzo Madama where, however, the numbers of the yellow-reds are small, and where the votes of the various and often unpredictable members of the Mixed group will be decisive.
