Rome, September 2, 2026 – Green light from Veneto for the end-of-life law. After Tuscany, Sardinia, and Emilia-Romagna, it is the fourth Italian region and the first governed by the center-right to approve the measure. The popular initiative law, which defines “procedures and timing for regional healthcare assistance for medically assisted suicide,” was approved by the Regional Council with 32 votes in favor, 5 abstentions, and 14 against.
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The floor session had been suspended yesterday late afternoon and resumed this morning with the conclusion of the general debate and the examination of amendments. The law had been postponed to the Commission in the session of January 16, 2024, of the previous legislature, after the failure to approve the first articles, it was reintroduced in the current one and passed, with modifications, the new examination by the legislative assembly. The amendments took into account the observations of the Constitutional Court and further proposals from the Veneto executive.
Zaia: “A necessary response. Cross-party stance on ethical issues”
“With this law, we are essentially approving, within the bounds of legal legitimacy, a procedure that responds to the management, as much as possible, of the potential patient who has the approval of the ethics committee. It was necessary to give this response to those very few patients who come forward,” said the president of the Veneto Regional Council, Luca Zaia. The former governor recalled that in Veneto the requests “have been 31 from 2019 to today and only three have received authorization from the ethics committee.”
“I wanted to clarify from the start that we were not deciding to approve or reject end of life, given the protests and the discussions I have read on social media,” Zaia added. “The truth is that end of life has existed in Italy since 2019 and any terminal patient who has the four characteristics – unfavorable diagnosis, kept alive by vital support, severe physical and psychological suffering, and free and conscious to choose – can ask their Ulss to evaluate their situation to manage end of life.” As Zaia noted, in the Council “there was a deep discussion lasting over ten hours, during which all councilors spoke. The reasons for yes and no were clearly presented – he concluded – with mutual respect in the chamber.”
“Both on the right and the left there are supporters and opponents. There is no clear political alignment, so the only solution is to rely on freedom of conscience and for politics to see issues like this, which are ethical issues, as a ‘no fly zone’ to be left only to freedom of conscience,” Zaia concluded.
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