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11 September 2019 "The approval of assisted suicide in our country would open a veritable chasm from the legislative point of view, placing itself in contrast with the Italian Constitution itself". Thus stated the president of the CEI, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, speaking at a public event promoted by the Episcopal Conference in view of the sentence on assisted suicide of the Constitutional Court expected for September 24 in which he reiterated "the mandatory principle of respect for life" .

"It must be denied - the cardinal added - that there is a right to die: living is a duty, even for those who are sick and suffering. I realize that this thought will seem incomprehensible or even violent to some. recognizing that life, rather than our possession, is a gift we have received and we must share, without throwing it away, because we are indebted to others for the love we owe them ".

"The utilitarian logic - explained Bassetti - quickly leads to a crisis of the law itself, which sees itself transformed into a mere convention, in arbitrariness and agreement between the parties, instead of being the means to promote human values". "The juridical crisis clearly emerges in the institutional passage to which we are witnessing, apparently screwed up in a path without outlets, but in reality oriented, undercurrent, to the approval of principles damaging to the human being".

"Appointed by the Constitutional Court to legislate around the issues of euthanasia and voluntary death - continued the president of the bishops - the Parliament limited itself to presenting some bills, without reaching neither a shared text, nor to face in a way the debate is serious: now, in order to prevent a sentence of the Consulta from causing the dismantling of the crime of aid to suicide, the Parliament - as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte hoped - should soon be able to discuss and modify article 580 or , in any case, to initiate a procedure of discussion of the law that could induce the Court itself to grant an extra time ".

"The most feasible way - he continued - would be the mitigation and differentiation of the sanctions for aid to suicide, in the particular case in which the relatives or caregivers are acting. This scenario, far from it that ideal would still be something other than the eventuality of a decriminalization of the crime itself.If you went in the line of decriminalization, Parliament would be practically forced to regulate assisted suicide, so we would have a predictable multiplication of cases similar to Noa's , the Dutch girl who found a doctor to help die, instead of a support to recover from her tormented existence. Cases like these are unfortunately common in countries where the practice of assisted suicide is legitimate ".

"In reality - he added - well before the suicide offense, parliamentary work should be devoted to a revision of the Advance Treatment Provisions, approved with Law 219, of December 2017. The provisions contained in that text, in fact, represent the starting point of a law in favor of assisted suicide and euthanasia Law 219 should, in fact, be reviewed where it includes the nutrition and hydration assisted in the group of health treatments, which as such may be suspended; clarified the circumstances that the law establishes for deep sedation and the possibility of exercising conscientious objection to the norm should be introduced Finally, the use of palliative care should be strengthened, the importance of which is crucial in offering the necessary relief to suffering of the sick ".

According to the president of the CEI, "the ambiguity of the law on the bioassay is made evident if it is put in relation with the dramatic epilogue of the story of the French Vincent Lambert and to which in Italy, just by virtue of the law 219, nutrition and hydration would have been suspended , by agreement between the doctor and the lawyer, even without any involvement of the judge ". "The approval of assisted suicide in our country would then open a veritable chasm from a legislative point of view, placing itself in conflict with the Italian Constitution itself, according to which" the Republic recognizes and guarantees the inviolable rights of man ", the first of which it is the one to life. This contrast would mark an irreversible passage from the legal point of view ", he concluded.