Italian Law no. 219/2017: consequences on the informed consent of the psychiatric patient and on the therapeutic privilege [Legge Italiana n. 219/2017: Conseguenze sul consenso informato del malato psichiatrico e sul privilegio terapeutico]

In recent years all the factors that characterize the doctor-patient relationship have changed considerably. In fact, there has been an evolution in the bioethics and legal rules regulating medical activity and in the awareness of patients undergoing medical procedures. In particular, informed consent has assumed an increasingly central role, identified as a central and indispensable phase of medical activity. In fact, what distinguishes legitimate and illegitimate medical activity is the informed consent of the patient. Central and founding the legal basis of informed consent is the right to self-determination: no one can be obliged to a treatment against his will except by law provision (as also recited by art. 32 of the Italian Constitution). Therefore, any medical act, in the absence of the patient’s consent, is unlawful.