Page 65 - IJSA, Vol. 7, No 1, 2024

International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2024
рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa

l’existence d’une souffrance psychique extrême, (existence of a serious pathology and incurable,
insupportable et unapaisable”. producing constant and unbearable suffering) but little or
The subsequent complaints expressed to the Judicial nothing was done to offer her that support which could
Authority by the patient’s son T. M., a university control or contain her suffering. In addition, it seems that
professor, accusing of non-compliance with Belgian law her daughter’s affection could probably be recovered,
and of not having been informed of what had been and that there was a network of friends and trust on which
authorized by the two Belgian doctors, were not followed the woman could still count.
up; in May 2017 he was informed of the filing of his Without questioning the seriousness of the suffering
criminal complaint due to insufficient evidence. Hence, caused by the psycho-pathological condition from which
his decision to appeal to the European Court of Justice Mrs. Godelieva de Troyer was affected, her protracted
for the violation of articles 2 and 8 of the European state of suffering (albeit between the ups and downs that
Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). are normally recorded in these clinical situations), the
Going into the merits of the matter, the Strasbourg incomplete control of the depressive symptomatology
judges, without declaring the existence of a conflict despite the prolonged pharmacological and psycho-
between art. 2 of the ECHR and the Belgian law (which, behavioral therapies, the distrust gained towards
under certain conditions, decriminalized euthanasia), psychiatric treatments, her social isolation and loss of
recognized that the strictness of the procedure envisaged hope, what appears indisputable is that the robustness of
by Belgian internal legislation had not been respected her decision was not subjected to any particular
because the same Prof. W. D., having personally verification and that some of the doctors she interviewed
supervised the euthanasia procedure from the initial politely declined the invitation or temporarily suspended
request of the woman, could not have expressed any it, believing that the decision to die at the hands of a
judgment on the merits of his work, and would therefore doctor required a more complete maturation.
have had to abstain for reasons of independence and Trying to give a practical answer to these questions, we
competence. hypothesized to transfer the human story of
Thus sanctioning Belgium, but without however Mrs. Godelieva de Troyer to the Italian context (where
addressing the compliance of Belgian law with art. 2 of euthanasia is forbidden) asking ourselves what could
the ECHR (Bucalo, 2023) and without discussing the have happened if she had asked Italian doctors to help her
robustness of the woman’s decision as had been done, to die with assisted suicide, a practice permitted within
however, by the same judges in the Haas sentence against limits and the guarantees provided by the Constitutional
Switzerland (Butturini, 2011) whose protagonist had Judge in sentence no. 242/2019; sentence with which the
been a patient suffering from bipolar disorder who had art. 580 of the penal code (“Instigating and assisting in
resorted to the Court complaining about the inertia of the suicide”) makes the actor no longer punishable in the
country to supply a drug lethal for his assisted suicide, hypothesis in which the execution of the intention of
which should have put an end to his unbearable suffering. suicide, autonomously and freely formed, of the adult
person has been facilitated provided that the person is
Results and Discussion affected by an irreversible pathology, kept in life from
The Choice to Die with the Help or by the Hand of the life-sustaining treatments, the condition is a source of
Doctor (Medically Assisted Death): Limitations and physical or psychological suffering that the person
Safety Profiles in Italy considers as intolerable, while remaining fully capable of
Beyond the complexity of the case, as it has been making free and informed decisions.
reconstructed by the Judges of the European Court of These conditions and the methods of execution of
Justice, the human story of Mrs. Godelieva de Troyer assisted suicide must then be verified by a public
raises many questions. Two in particular, for what structure of the national health service, subject to the
concerns us here, having to ask what it was: opinion of the territorially competent ethics committee,
(1) the robustness of her decision to die by euthanasia as thus identifying a whole series of constraints – not only
scientific evidence demonstrates that cognitive deficits procedural but above all substantial – which have set, and
can represent an important component of MDD (Douglas they continue to pose, problematic questions, not yet
& Porter, 2009) proving capable of compromising fully resolved.
memory, attentional functions and learning (Kriesche et For example, it is much debated which Ethics Committee
al., 2023) with a worsening of the deficits caused by is properly required to express its opinion in these cases.
repeated relapses (Semkovska et al., 2019) and aging In response to the specific question posed by the Minister
(Dotson et al., 2020); of Health, on 24 February 2023 the National Bioethics
(2) the support (medical, psychological, pharmacological Committee considered that the responsibility should be
and human) that should have been guaranteed to the attributed to the CETs (Territorial Ethics Committees),
woman and with what possible precautions (or guarantee referred to in the Decree of 26 January 2023
rules) could and should have brought to maturity the (“Identification of forty territorial ethics committees”),
decision of the same to put an early end to life her. uniformly present in the country.
The general impression that emerges from the analysis of Another important topic of debate concerns life support,
this sad story is that the doctors consulted by Mrs. de on which there are frankly antithetical ideas, there being
Troyer were particularly attentive to the formal aspects those who indicate it in those measures that require the
required by Belgian law to finalize the euthanasia request use of artificial means and the support given by machines

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