In first for Italy, Tuscany approves right-to-die law

FLORENCE (Reuters) - Tuscany approved on Tuesday a right-to-die law, becoming the first region in Roman Catholic Italy to regulate assisted suicide in the absence of national legislation on a highly controversial topic.

Italy's constitutional court de-facto legalised the procedure in 2019, and urged parliament to pass a law to provide a clear legal framework. But the invitation has gone unheeded, with national politicians ducking the issue.

Tuscany's regional law, which passed by a 27-13 majority, spells out how assisted suicide requests should be handled, including an obligation for a medical panel to consider applications within 30 days.

If the criteria are met, the regional health service must provide the necessary medication and healthcare personnel within 10 days, unless the patient wants his own doctor to carry out the procedure.

The law allows doctors to refuse to participate on moral or ethical grounds - similar to what is already allowed by national legislation on abortion for so-called conscientious objectors.

Before the law was approved, conservative Catholic charity Pro Vita Famiglia criticised Tuscany for turning itself into "a sort of Italian Switzerland" where "state death" is administered to "get rid of sick, fragile, old and lonely people."

Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since the 1940s.

Healthcare in Italy is largely a regional competence. Tuscany is ruled by the centre-left, but at national level Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's rightist coalition is broadly against euthanasia.

Last year, however, a right-to-die bill was discussed in the regional assembly of right-wing ruled Veneto, and failed to pass by just one vote as both the centre-left and centre-right camps split on the issue.

In 2019, the Constitutional Court decriminalised assisted dying for patients affected by incurable diseases that cause "intolerable" suffering, and who express a clear will to die.

Nevertheless, regional health authorities remain reluctant to authorise assisted suicide requests, prompting a campaign by the pro-euthanasia Luca Coscioni Association for clearer legislation on the issue.

The charity is seeking to introduce assisted dying laws in each of Italy's 20 regions, and its campaign inspired both the bill in Tuscany and the one that failed in Veneto. Other Italian regions are drafting similar legislation.

(Reporting by Silvia Ognibene, writing by Alvise Armellini and Francesca Piscioneri, editing by Crispian Balmer)