Italy’s constitutional court has blocked a referendum to decriminalise physician-assisted suicide in the country, citing inadequate legal protections for the weak and vulnerable.
The leadership of the Italian bishops’ conference welcomed the court’s decision.
The court’s pronouncement “is a very specific invitation to never marginalise the commitment of society, as a whole, to offer the support necessary to overcome or alleviate the situation of suffering or distress,” the bishops said.
A petition with more than 1.2 million signatures requesting the national referendum was submitted to the Italian court in October 2021.
