First Assisted Suicide in Tuscany Under New Regional Law

Florence: A Parkinson’s sufferer has become the first person to commit medically assisted suicide in Tuscany under a controversial new regional law that makes the procedure possible in some cases, the right-to-die Luca Coscioni association said on Wednesday. Premier Giorgia Meloni’s centre-right government is challenging the law, which Tuscany passed in February to fill a legislative vacuum at the national level on legislation regarding end-of-life issues.

According to Ansa News Agency, the regional law complies with strict markers laid down by the Constitutional Court in a 2019 ruling that stated assisted suicide is legal in some cases. The requirements outlined in the 2019 sentence included the presence of an irreversible pathology, unbearable physical or psychological suffering, and the patient’s reliance on treatments of vital support, among others.

The Constitutional Court also called on parliament to pass legislation dealing with end-of-life issues, something that it has failed to do so far. The parties on the right of Italy’s political spectrum are opposed to moves to make assisted suicide easier.

The Coscioni association said the first case under the Tuscan law was that of “Daniele Pieroni, a writer, who was able to choose with lucidity and serenity to end his own life” on May 17. It said he was a 60-year-old man who had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease since 2008 and, due to “severe dysphagia,” was forced to live with a PEG tube 21 hours a day.

Several people have been helped to die in Italy by the Coscioni association, which previously only took the terminally ill to the Dignitas Clinic near Zurich to end their lives.