PREDICT TO PREVENT TO INTERVENE: NEW NAMES IN PIEDMONTESE FORENSIC MEDICINE 

Minerva Medicolegale 2013 December;133(4):241-7

Copyright © 2014 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

The living will: news and perspectives in Italy

Vitetta G.

Medico legale, Torino, Italia

After the case of director Charles Lizzani, who committed suicide throwing himself down from the third-floor balcony of his house, the public debate on the subject of living wills, legal euthanasia or assisted suicide has reopened. Alongside with those who chose a violent death as the Italian director, writer and actor Mario Monicelli in 2010, and the Italian writer Franco Lucentini in 2002, there are those who chose assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic, as the founder of “Il Manifesto” Lucio Magri. Through this work we have tried to quickly retrace the steps that have marked the transition from the traditional Hippocratic paternalistic model to a new model based on autonomy, that is a conscious choice of the health care proposals (informed consent), giving rise to the dilemma of self-determination in subjects who, because of their state of health, are not able to express it. The response was analyzed in various European countries that give legal validity to the issue (living wills) and compared with the legal situation in Italy.