Italy’s Parliament has approved a law on so-called living wills, which allow patients to set out instructions for health care towards the end of their lives.
The law was passed amid controversial debate over euthanasia in the predominantly Catholic country.
The country’s Senate voted by 180 votes to 71 in favour of the law, which, among other things, gives people the right to refuse artificial nutrition or artificial respiration.
Similar regulations have long since been in place in many other European countries.
Cases such as that of the Italian DJ Fabo, who travelled to Switzerland for assisted suicide after being left paralysed by a car crash, have repeatedly led to broad discussion in Italy, where active euthanasia remains a taboo topic.
The current law was a key concern of the Social Democratic Party under former prime minister Matteo Renzi.
His successor and party colleague Paolo Gentiloni spoke on a “a step forward for human dignity.’’ (dpa/NAN)
