Many issues surrounding the birth and end of life are "borderlines or gray areas" where it's not immediately clear what the true good is. We hear more and more about euthanasia and living wills . The two terms are used synonymously to indicate the end of life. In reality, they are two different things, even though they both indicate a patient's desire to end their own life. The bioethical debate surrounding the legitimacy or illegitimacy of hastening an inevitable death, and sparing the person asking for help to die from unbearable suffering, uses the term "euthanasia." Euthanasia is the anticipation of death made possible by human intervention for patients with no reasonable prospect of survival. Euthanasia can take an active or passive form, but in both cases, it represents the death of a patient, of their own volition, through medical assistance. Active euthanasia occurs when a patient, in the terminal stage or with no possibility of recovery, requests that their life be ended. Passive euthanasia , on the other hand, involves withholding the treatments needed to keep the patient alive. Euthanasia is performed through deep sedation with powerful painkillers that act directly on the heart. Euthanasia is prohibited throughout Europe, except in Belgium , the Netherlands , and Luxembourg.
The taboo of death
As Professor Paolo De Nardis points out in his text “In the Footsteps of Endymion: A Sociological Reflection on Euthanasia”, with the process of secularization implemented in Western societies, the taboos of procreation as well as those of death Suffered and lived with dignity, death has lost its value. The social actor is constituted by his identity; wanting to dispose of it through suicide or planned euthanasia somehow means detaching oneself from it. The act of someone who ends his own days under the pretext of having lived long enough confirms the absolute value of life. The cultural suppression of death, typical of our time, as well as its exclusive medicalization, constitutes one of the most significant problems for sociological reflection. Euthanasia, in this sense, has fully entered the mainstream of controversy published in recent years. What is meant by "worthy life"It cannot be defined in general terms, universally valid for everyone and in all circumstances. Life certainly cannot be defined as worthy by any rule. A law that does not take into account the decisions that shape "lives" and death, that does not take into account the diversity of human condition and the different valuation of goods and suffering, violates justice and humanity. DJ Fabio, Fabiano Antoniani, Eluana Englaro, and Piergiorgio Welby are just a few names associated with the decision to end a life of pain. The emotion fades over the decision of DJ Fabio, who died in Switzerland thanks to assisted suicide, after an accident left him blind, quadriplegic, and permanently cared for by his family.
Euthanasia in Europe
Currently Belgium and the Netherlands are the only states to have authorised euthanasia on minors under eighteenIn the Netherlands, however, euthanasia is only permitted for newborns and those over twelve years of age (in June 2015 the Dutch paediatricians' association asked for the limit to be removed, but there has still been no change in this regard). living will (also called a living will, advance directive, or DAT), consists of a real legal act by the patient: the patient, still healthy and with full mental faculties, declares which medical treatments he or she wishes to undergo and which ones he or she wishes to refuse, especially in the case of terminal illness or accident. No discussion of a living will can ignore a discussion of euthanasia, precisely because in both cases the aim is to avoidtherapeutic persistence, that is, an obstinacy in administering medical treatments that are disproportionate to the patient's condition. The term therapeutic obstinacy is used almost exclusively in Italy, while in other countries it is replaced by "futile or useless therapies." In fact, there is no law that clarifies the boundary between treatment andabuse of careIt is precisely at this point that the risk of not respecting the patient and his wishes arises.
The proposed law in Italy
Several Italian municipalities have a register of living wills; the proposed law on "Advance Treatment Declarations" (DAT) contains the same principles as living wills. DATs must be in writing (or videotaped depending on the patient's condition) and are binding on the physician, who is required to respect their content. However, DATs may be disregarded if they appear clearly inconsistent, or if the patient's conditions have changed in the meantime, or if new therapies have arisen that were unforeseeable at the time of their preparation. In the same written form, DATs are renewable, modifiable, and revocable at any time. In an emergency, they can also be modified or cancelled verbally. Nonetheless, in the absence of specific legislation regarding end-of-life care, the legal framework for this purpose is based on the principles of self-determination, protection of consent, and the right to refuse medical treatment.
Emanuela Ferrara
