Italian bishops are worried that draft legislation on 'living wills' currently being considered in parliament could open the way for general acceptance of subtle forms of euthanasia.
Several bills have been presented to the Italian parliament proposing the legal recognition of living wills, also known as advance directives. They are being discussed by parliamentary medical committees.
Living wills are documents detailing what sort of medical treatment people would like to receive in given situations if they are unable to communicate with doctors themselves.
Italian bishops are concerned that legislation in this area "could open the way to a drift towards de facto euthanasia," said Monsignor Giuseppe Betori, no.2 at the Italian bishops conference.
Such measures are relatively common in the United States and have also become popular in Britain in recent years.
One of the key risks was that a law would "fail to distinguish between medical practice and 'treatment'," Betori said.
He said that feeding tubes or artificial respirators should be seen as standard medical practice in certain situations, not treatment which a patient could decide to do without.
"If they are seen as treatment, then you are opening the way to euthanasia," Betori said, because then a doctor might be obliged to switch off life-sustaining machines, thus provoking the patient's death.
The debate about euthanasia and living wills was recently revived in Italy by the case of Piergiorgio Welby.
Welby, a 51-year-old sufferer of advanced muscular dystrophy, had been asking to be allowed to "die in dignity" for months before a doctor complied with his wishes last December and unplugged his respirator.
As well as creating controversy, the incident also prompted Rome prosecutors to begin a probe to see whether the doctor could be prosecuted for a form of homicide. Prosecutors eventually asked for the probe to be shelved but this week a judge refused and ordered further investigations.
'NOT CAUSING DEATH'.
President Giorgio Napolitano asked Italy's lawmakers to address the issue of a patient's right to accept or refuse treatment issue when the Welby case erupted.
The head of the Senate health committee, centre-left MP Ignazio Marino, said on Tuesday that there would be no drift towards euthanasia in the draft law which eventually emerges from committee discussions.
"It will reiterate the ban on euthanasia and assisted suicide and guarantee the patient the possibility to refuse excessive therapy," he said.
"This doesn't mean procuring death but accepting that sometimes it cannot be avoided".
Living wills are being actively promoted by former health minister Umberto Veronesi, an internationally renowned oncologist. His medical research foundation has been offering the public guidelines for these documents on its website for a year.
Over 1,000 Italians have prepared living wills and registered them with the Veronesi Foundation.
Italian representatives of the Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist religions last week gave conditional approval to living wills.
