Italian court blocks referendum on euthanasia

ROME — Italy's Constitutional Court has blocked a national referendum on legalizing euthanasia, saying it would violate constitutional protections of human life.

The court, which ruled in 2019 against punishing a physician for assisting with the death of a terminally ill patient experiencing intolerable suffering, had urged parliament to draft clear legislation regulating euthanasia and assisted suicide.

But a delay in parliamentary action led a coalition of right-to-die groups to launch a drive to collect signatures to put a euthanasia referendum on the ballot. The drive collected more than 1 million signatures, and the supreme court declared almost 550,000 of them valid — more than what was needed to have the question reviewed by the Constitutional Court.

The referendum would have modified Italian law so that causing anyone's death with his or her consent would no longer be punishable with a prison term of six to 15 years. Instead, the only acts of euthanasia or assisted suicide that would remain punishable would be those involving persons under the age of 18, persons coerced into giving consent or those incapable of giving consent because of mental infirmity or being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

While the Constitutional Court's full ruling and explanations were not published immediately, its press office released a statement saying, "The court deemed the referendum question inadmissible because, following the repeal, albeit partial, of the law on the killing of a consenting party, which is the purpose of the question, the constitutionally necessary minimum protection of human life in general, and of weak and vulnerable persons in particular, would not be preserved."