Tuscan region approves right-to-die law in the absence of national legislation.

Tuscany approved a law granting access to medically assisted suicide, becoming the first region in Italy to regulate euthanasia, following a vote by the regional council on Tuesday.

Euthanasia was effectively legalised in Italy in 2019 by the constitutional court which has repeatedly called on parliament to define how it should be regulated.

However politicians have avoided the deeply divisive issue and there remains no legal framework at a national level to regulate assisted suicide.

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Tuscany's regional council passed the proposal with 27 votes in favour, 13 against and one abstention, with the center-left majority that supports president Eugenio Giani decisive for its approval.

Giani's Partito Democratico has 23 seats out of 41 on the council, while the centrist Italia Viva and populist Moviemento 5 Stelle, which have two seats each, also said they were in favour of regulating assisted dying in the region.

Oggi la Toscana ha fatto un passo in avanti importante: con 27 voti favorevoli, 13 contrari e 1 astenuto, il Consiglio regionale ha approvato la prima legge in Italia che regola il trattamento medicalmente assistito del fine vita. pic.twitter.com/ds8YqSjAeQ

— Eugenio Giani (@EugenioGiani) February 11, 2025

Regional councillors of the three right-wing parties that make up the coalition government - Fratelli d’Italia, Lega and Forza Italia - voted against the move.

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The bill, proposed by the Luca Coscioni right-to-die association, defines how assisted suicide requests should be handled by the regional health service, with a medical panel tasked with evaluating individual requests within specific time frames.

In 2019 Italy's constitutional court ruled that it is not always a crime to help someone in “intolerable suffering” to die, under certain conditions, including if the patient is being kept alive by life-sustaining treatment, suffering from an irreversible illness, and enduring suffering that the patient deems intolerable.

However in 2022 the constitutional court rejected a petition calling for a referendum to decriminalise euthanasia, after right-to-die activists had secured more than 1.2 million signatures in a petition.