Campaign Pushes for Right-to-Die Legislation in Italy
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iStock/Thinkstock(ROME) — A campaign of leading doctors, politicians and those terminally ill in Italy is challenging the country’s Vatican-influenced laws that ban euthanasia.
A video appeal features the testimonials of 70 leading Italians urging their government to begin discussing right-to-die legislation.
The appeal comes a year after the group proposed legislation that would give Italians more control over how they die. That would include both the right to euthanasia and to a living will, where legal instructions are written on what medical assistance a person wants in the future if he or she becomes incapable of communicating.
Sixty percent of Italians are in favor of regulated euthanasia and more than 70 percent would like the right to compose a living will.
But Italian politicians have so far refused to take up the issue. Many are still heavily influenced by Catholic church teaching against any form of assisted suicide.
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