Refuses artificial nutrition, local health authority agrees to assisted suicide

The procedure for the access to medically assisted suicide of the 54-year-old Tuscan woman, completely paralysed due to progressive multiple sclerosis, who had refused artificial nutrition, has been unblocked: the Asl Toscana nord ovest (local health authority of north-west Tuscany) has given a favourable opinion. "This is the first application of the Consulta's new ruling that has extended the concept of life-support treatment," says the Luca Coscioni association to which the woman had turned some time ago and which had made her case known a month ago. The health authority, the association explains today, 'has communicated its favourable opinion: the woman possesses all four of the requirements envisaged by sentence 242/2019 (Cappato/Dj Fabo) to be able to legally access medically assisted suicide in Italy. From today, if he confirms his will, he can proceed to end his suffering. The medical commission of the health authority is now waiting to know the method of execution and the doctor chosen by the woman, so as to ensure 'respect for the dignity of the person'.

The woman had sent the request for verification of her condition on 20 March, and because of the refusal she had received, on 29 June, she had asked the local health authority to revise the final report with particular reference to the existence of the requirement of life-support treatment, since she was totally dependent on the assistance of third parties and had refused artificial nutrition with the Peg, considering it to be a futile treatment. Now the revision of the local health authority's opinion 'took place,' the association notes, 'in the light of the recent Constitutional Court ruling 135 of 2024, which extended the interpretation of the concept of life-support treatment': until this latest ruling, the health authority 'did not recognise the presence of this requirement, as it equated the refusal of artificial nutrition with the absence of "life-support treatment"'.

The judges of the Constitutional Court, however, "clarified that 'there can be no distinction between the situation of a patient who has already undergone life-support treatment, which he may request to be interrupted, and that of a patient who has not yet undergone such treatment, but now needs it to sustain his vital functions'". This is the first direct application of sentence 135 of the Consulta 'which interprets the requirement for life-support treatment in an extensive and non-discriminatory manner,' says lawyer Filomena Gallo, national secretary of the Coscioni Association, defender and coordinator of the 54-year-old woman's legal team. The lady, after months of waiting and suffering, with the risk of dying atrociously by suffocation even if only by drinking, will be able to decide with her trusted doctor when to proceed, communicating to the health authority when and how to self-administer the drug in order to receive assistance and what is necessary. The decisions of the Consulta, which have the force of law, fill the gap in the matter by dictating the procedures to be followed by those who wish to proceed with medically assisted suicide".