A petition in favor of the legalization of euthanasia in Italy has collected more than 750,000 signatures, thus far exceeding the threshold required for the organization of a referendum, the organizers announced on Wednesday (August 25th).
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The referendum, which was to collect at least 500,000 signatures, aims to reverse the law banning assisted suicide. It could be held as early as next year. Among the signatories is the journalist and writer Roberto Saviano, mafia specialist and author of the resounding “
Gomorra
”
investigation
into the Neapolitan Camorra. “
I signed because today, without a law to regulate it, euthanasia is not a right accessible to all. I signed for the free choice of those who do not have the possibility of going to countries where euthanasia is legal
”, he explained in a press release from the Luca Coscioni Association.
Currently, Italian law punishes assisted suicide with a sentence ranging from 5 to 12 years in prison. In 2019, the Constitutional Court introduced an exception for "
patients kept alive by treatment [...] and suffering from an irreversible pathology, a source of physical and psychological suffering that they consider intolerable, while being fully capable to make free and conscious decisions
”. However, assisted suicide remains inaccessible to all other people with incurable diseases causing great suffering.
The referendum, underline its promoters, will allow, if it is validated, to authorize “
medical aid to voluntary death
” to “
sick people who need outside help to put an end to their own suffering
”. Mario Adinolfi, president of the small Christian party Popolo della Famiglia (People of the family), denounced for his part "
a marketing campaign
" for "
the culture of death
".