Medico-legal and bioethical perspectives following the constitutional legitimacy of assisted suicide in Italy

Assisted suicide is the subject of much debate throughout the world. In Italy, on 24 September 2019, the Italian Constitutional Court legitimised assisted suicide under certain conditions: self-determination capacity, irreversible illness and intense physical/psychological suffering of the patient. This historic judgement surely paved the way for an evolution of the Italian legal framework on the matter but also raised some challenging medico-legal and bioethical questions. This study aims at analysing two of the most controversial among them: the inclusion of psychiatric patients among eligible patients for assisted suicide and the position of physicians related to their right to conscientious objection.