Will medically-assisted suicide mean the rebirth of (clinical) ethics committees in Italy?

The Italian Constitutional Court has held that, in certain specific circumstances, prosecution for assisted suicide, regulated by Article 580 of the Criminal Code, is not compatible with the Constitution. The circumstances in question relate to individuals who are being kept alive by life-sustaining treatments, who are fully capable of taking free, informed decisions and are suffering from irreversible conditions that are a source of intolerable physical or mental suffering. The Court has held that the Ethics Committees must assess a request for assisted suicide made by an individual meeting these conditions. The decision requires the identification of the Ethics Committee authorised to issue authorisation in such cases and a guarantee that these Ethics Committees are able to deal with this type of issue. The Court's decision is an important opportunity to establish and promote clinical Ethics Committees, which are not nationally regulated in Italy and exist in very small numbers in only a few parts of the country.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2020

Erschienen:

2020

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:88

Enthalten in:

The Medico-legal journal - 88(2020), 1_suppl vom: 28. Nov., Seite 26-30

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Petrini, Carlo [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Ethics committees
Journal Article
Legislation
Medically-assisted suicide

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 04.10.2021

Date Revised 04.10.2021

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1177/0025817220923650

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM311064221