Antonio Rinaudo was one of the most important prosecutors of the Turin Prosecutor’s Office, where he dealt with some historical processes, from Tav to terrorism to the accident in Piazza San Carlo. Retired for a few years, he continued to spend himself in public positions of the civic and health sector, starting from the pandemic crisis. “My experience in the health field,” he explains to Truth“Was born in 2020, when in full Covid crisis the Piedmont Region established a group of crisis units with a commissioner head ad actaone health and one in the legal area, that is me. Here in contact with health more than I had done in the processes connected to it I had dealt with. ” Subsequently, Rinaudo, also by virtue of this experience, is appointed president of the local ethical committee, always of a regional level. A legislative change then provides for the birth of 40 territorial ethical committees for research. The former prosecutor presides over the Turin one from Piedmont: it mainly has tasks related to the supervision of the experimentation of medicines. These committees are then intended, following the judgment of the Constitutional Court 242 of 2019 (Cappato, to understand each other), to also deal with the evaluation of the responses to the requests for assisted suicide, in accordance with the pronunciation of the Consulta, which then fixed the “stakes” in the presence of which it became unconstitutional to proceed for help to suicide against those who contributed to the requests of conscious people, employees, dependent on vital support. irreversible pathologies deemed intolerable. The sentence also provides for the advice of an independent and autonomous third body, which is identified in ethical committees. The former prosecutor, who therefore studied the topic directly for six years, is privileged interlocutor for the political-cultural situation that revolves around the theme of the end-life, also in light of the developments and moves of the regional bodies that this newspaper has documented in recent months.
Rinaudo, first of all, as president of one of the Piedmontese ethical committees, how many requests for assisted suicide found themselves evaluating?
“None. It seems to be one but the patient died before it was formalized. This obviously did not prevent a profound work on a technical-legal level in the light of the pronunciations of the Constitutional Court ».
That is to say?
“In 2023 I proposed to the Region to constitute a group that formulated guidelines by claiming that the body, in implementation of sentence 242 of 2019, had a first task: to deal with elaborating guidelines for healthcare structures, which otherwise do not literally know what to do in the face of patients’ requests”.
And how did this work materialized?
«In a document signed by a parterre as representative as possible of different sensitivity and professionalism close to the theme. It consists actually in some places to submit to healthcare companies to establish a uniform behavior method in times and actions compared to patients asking assisted suicide ».
Can you explain to them?
“For example, they establish the terms in which the application must be formulated, therefore the times and methods of response of the health commission that verifies the presence of the conditions established by the Constitutional Court, of that of the ethical committee that is expressed on the real conviction of the patient. Subsequently it also provides for the interlocution with the interested party for an overall evaluation and sending in defined times of a response, positive or not, by the health company. The final decision indicates the need to take into account any conscientious objectors in the structures, and the technical choices on the drug and administration is left to the health company “.
But in your opinion, does the Constitutional Court sentence contain obligations for health services?
«In my opinion, and in the opinion of magistrates who intervened when the Regions did not provide answers in this sense, yes. I realize it is an open discussion. For how I see it, in fact the Court has built a right to access, therefore it is necessary to respond and in a coordinated way, otherwise the risk is that different answers are depending on the place where requests are made “.
In fact, on this the discussion is profound: there are those who believe that the Consulta cannot “create” rights, and those who instead derive the practical urgency to comply with its constraints even in the absence of a political pronouncement. Until this does not happen at a parliamentary level, however, the regions are moving: Tuscany normally accessing access to the suicide assisted autonomously, Veneto trying without success, Lombardy approving a prejudice to constitutionality on the possibility of a region to intervene in a state matter. What judgment does this initiatives give?
«The approach must be secular and objective. In the absence of a national law that notice the situation after the three rulings of the Consulta who have now opened the passage, a void has been created. We have a potential right and, as I said, in fact a “obligation” to the health facilities to respond. The Luca Coscioni association slipped into this void with a sort of institutional provocation, and as well as he has collected signatures for regional laws. I say “provocation” because that association knows that at national level there are obstacles determined by the presence of political factions also divided into them on the topic of the end-life, and therefore has moved the regional plan. Many regions have in fact joined the request, and so the question ended up to their respective regional councils. In my opinion, the attitude formalized by the Lombardy Region is very correct: a simple reading of the Constitution makes it clear that the matter cannot be faced legislatively with a regional intervention: it would be impressed on a criminal problem with different solutions, which would create franche areas with respect to the law: a situation objectively not acceptable in our system “.
Would we risk a sort of criminal federalism?
«Yes, it would be a kind of arral dress of the law and the criminal code. Not to mention the potential vulnus in article 117 of the Constitution, that on the skills of local authorities. And then how do you guarantee this right on a regional basis? Should it be foreseen within the Lea, the essential levels of assistance? It would be another absurdity ».
The government must then challenge the Tuscan law, according to this reasoning …
“There could undoubtedly be the space for a conflict of attribution, and it is not difficult to believe that the Court could fall the regional law: among other things, it would be consistent with its own dictation, which exerts pressure for a national law. In my opinion, giving freedom to the regions would violate article 117 as mentioned. “
Let’s go back to Parliament, then: choosing not to norme is in your opinion a legitimate choice?
«No, in my opinion a position must be taken: I don’t see a space not to legislate in parliament. Or rather, if politically we mean that the country is not mature for a law, then it is more responsible before citizens to say that there is no possibility of accessing the assisted suicide in the conditions provided for by the Consulta. In my opinion it would be a jump in the dark, because I consider it right not only to the limits of the Constitutional Court but to a need manifested by many people in a picture that has been sensationally changed sensationally in the last 30-40 years. I perfectly realize the legitimacy of opinions contrary to mine: we are not in the mathematical field. There are ethical and legal assessments to make and no choice is neutral, including the absence of choices. Indeed, not even the law is sufficient, see the DAT (early treatment provisions, editor’s note) »
Meaning what?
«I personally found great neglect on a theme precisely the provincial by law, not only among ordinary citizens but also in health personnel and administrations. I believe, especially on these issues, information and transparency are culturally crucial, including transparency on the non -irrelevant economic aspects connected to the theme of the end of life “.
Let’s go back to the latter knot. The Lombardy Region, despite the vote mentioned in the Regional Council, through the healthcare structures has made access to a patient to assisted suicide. A question is spontaneous: if this already happens today without a vote in Parliament and even with a pronouncement against local political representation, what is a law for?
“I believe it serves: to protect doctors and entities, and patients, who must have a method of action not entrusted to arbitrariness or the sensitivity of individuals. Precisely for this reason, however, the guidelines are not enough, which I also collaborated to spread how I tried to explain ».
