Una nuova declinazione del diritto del paziente ad autodeterminarsi quanto alle scelte sulla fine della vita? Discrasie fra forma e sostanza di Corte cost., 8 luglio 2025, n. 132 in tema di omicidio del consenziente.

This article examines the Constitutional Court's ruling no. 132 of July 8, 2025, which declared the inadmissibility of the question of constitutionality relating to Article 579 of the Criminal Code raised by the Court of Florence. Specifically, the referring judge, in the context of an urgent proceeding pursuant to Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure, had requested an additional ruling from the Court, extending the grounds for justifying the crime of assisted suicide, identified in its ruling no. 242 of 2019, to include the crime of consenting homicide. The Supreme Court did not address the merits of the case, citing the lack of adequate preliminary investigation, which undermines the relevance of the issue. The decision leaves some doubts unanswered: considering the decisional instrument (the inadmissibility ruling, rather than the more appropriate order to return the case file to the judge), it's possible to assume the Supreme Court does not intend to change its previous jurisprudence regarding therapeutic self-determination regarding end-of-life decisions. However, considering an obiter dictum in the final part of the ruling, one might think it marks the beginning of a new interpretation of this right.