Differentiated euthanasia. Silvana Sciarra commends the regions, in this instance

“A lesson from the regions,” said the former president of the Constitutional Court, Silvana Sciarra, commenting on Veneto’s approval of the law on medically assisted suicide, which came just a few weeks after the first case of its application in Lombardy – but yesterday Attilio Fontana reiterated that he does not intend to follow Veneto’s lead, but merely to “apply protocols”: finding two League members who see eye to eye these days is a tall order. In reality, the former president of the Constitutional Court did not put it quite like that – a “lesson” from the regions: it is the usual pointless sensationalism in La Repubblica’s headlines. Sciarra said instead that “some regions have managed to reach a consensus before Parliament; that is a fact”, adding that “they did so in full respect of their powers”.

It might seem like a minor detail, given the introduction of voluntary euthanasia into the country’s legal system. But this institutional detail is not so trivial. We have witnessed the regionalisation of a practice of enormous ethical and social significance even before the State as a whole, through its Parliament, has legislated on the matter. In short, without the majority of Italians having had their say. From now on, there will be a free-for-all, with twenty different protocols, and who knows whether anyone – perhaps the Constitutional Court or some judge – will take the trouble to check whether, when it comes to assisted suicide, the Essential Levels of Care (LEA) will be guaranteed in every region. However, there is a more serious aspect to this: the callous indifference with which politicians are neglecting the introduction of ‘differentiated’ euthanasia, and also in Sciarra’s reasoning. The Constitutional Court and politicians have repeatedly rejected and placed ‘restrictions’ on proposals to reform regional powers – so-called ‘differentiated autonomy’. Even today, none of the 23 proposed areas of competence has been transferred. ‘Regionalism’ has always been rejected on ideological grounds, starting with the Constitutional Court. Yet now, on such a serious matter, the ‘lesson from the regions’ suits everyone just fine.