Preliminary proposals regarding of an italian law on end-of-life decision making

Abstract

In contrast to other European countries (e.g., Germany, France, Spain, the UK), Italy's attempts to regulate end-of-life care have ended in 2009 in a clash of opinion involving lay and religious philosophers, legal experts, and politicians. Rooted in strife and widely criticized from the scientific, moral, and juridical points of view, a bill dealing solely with the issue of advance directives has been lying dormant in the Senate since 2009. The absence of legislation dealing effectively with the complexities of end-of-life care continues to create difficulties in Italian ICUs, for physicians, nurses, patients, and their families. To address this need, the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) and Italian Society of Palliative Care, (SICP), together with the Department of the Pontifical Council for Culture's Courtyard of the Gentiles Foundation - established in 2009 to promote dialogue between "believers" and "nonbelievers" on issues that impact modern society - have now drafted a shared position paper highlighting the ethical and legal principles, that should inform future attempts to provide Italy with comprehensive laws for regulating end-of-life care in Italy. We report the shared position paper, which was presented in the Italian Senate on 17 September 2015.