Autore
Freni, Fortunato

Titolo
Libertà di coscienza e salute nelle scelte di fine-vita tra diritti individuali e doveri di solidarietà
Periodico
Quaderni di diritto e politica ecclesiastica
Anno: 2025 - Fascicolo: 3 - Pagina iniziale: 723 - Pagina finale: 756

This paper analyzes recent constitutional case law on end-of-life issues, in which the Constitutional Court attempts to strike a balance between the individual self-determination of terminally ill patients and the supportive protection of the value of life. Despite its oscillating approach, the Court consistently calls on the legislature to enact legislation that strikes a balance between these two sides of the debate, following the guidelines set out in its rulings. The paper therefore also analyzes the government’s draft law on assisted suicide, which does not strictly follow the Court’s jurisprudence. The author argues that, if a law is passed, it must respect 'the limits imposed by respect for the human person', as provided for in Article 32 of the Constitution. The legislation, therefore, by striking a secular balance between individual autonomy in choices concerning one’s own health and the collective interest in protecting life, must provide all the necessary guarantees to ensure that the terminally ill patient is not influenced by their fragile state to opt for death because of the belief that they are a burden on society and their family members. In short, if the patient chooses assisted suicide, he or she will do so because, despite the fact that the social and health care community and loved ones have a supportive and empathetic interest in keeping him or her alive, and to this end provide him or her with an efficient and well-organized human and material support system, he or she is firmly convinced that his or her current modus vivendi is no longer in line with his or her conscience. In these terms, therefore, the extreme decision would not be the result of an instinctive, simple, and abstract self-determination, negatively conditioned by the social and healthcare context in which the patient finds themselves, but rather the outcome of a free and considered manifestation of axiologically qualified (autonomous) will regarding their own life choices ("weltanschauung").



SICI: 1122-0392(2025)3<723:LDCESN>2.0.ZU;2-3
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.1440/119595
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1440/119595

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