The constitutional court said it “deemed the referendum question inadmissible,” because if the referendum were to repeal the existing criminal law on assisted suicide, “the constitutionally necessary minimum protection of human life, in general, and with particular reference to weak and vulnerable persons, would not be preserved.”
The court will file its full sentence on the referendum in the coming days.
Both assisted suicide and euthanasia are illegal in Italy, where the criminal law says that “anyone who causes the death of a man, with his consent, is punished with imprisonment from six to 15 years.”
Besides the now-rejected referendum, a bill to legalize assisted suicide, known in Italian legislation as “homicide of the consenting,” will soon be put up for vote in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Italy’s parliament.
Before that, beginning on Feb. 17, deputies will vote on changes to the text of the law.
Pope Francis and high-level Vatican officials have made public statements in recent weeks about the Catholic Church’s teachings on the dignity of human life.
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