Decisioni sui trattamenti sanitari o «diritto di morire»? I problemi interpretativi che investono la legge n. 219/2017 e la lettura del suo testo nell’ordinanza di rimessione alla Corte costituzionale dell’art. 580 c.p.

The work deals with the main interpretative issues of the law n. 219/2017, with particular regard to the relationship between patient and doctor. It is pointed out that the object of the law consists in regulating the choices made by a current or potential patient about the type and the length of medical treatments: not, instead, in the right to die, which is the right to use someone else’s collaboration aimed at the production of death (in this sense, some of the issues concerning the constitutional legitimacy of Section 580 of the Italian Criminal Code raised by the Court of Assizes of Milan in the ordinance 14-2-2018 are critically looked). It is emphasised the role of medical information in order to configure the choices on health treatments as an effective manifestation of the autonomy of those who express them: the same also applies to the validity of the advance healthcare directives. \r\nIn particular, the legal provisions that outline the physician’s duties without mentioning the patient’s consent, the subjective dimension of the judgment in establishing the proportionality of therapies, the role of the conscience clause in the Code of Medical Deontology, as well as the role of medical competence in identifying the boundaries of artificial hydration and nutrition described by the law as health treatment, are thoroughly investigated.\r\nFurthermore, the work focuses on the significance given in practice to economic evaluations in drafting guidelines. The Author hopes for a credible commitment in supporting families who take care of relatives suffering from chronic diseases and in preventing indirect request of mass media, which can guide unhealed patients to the renunciation of therapeutic activities even if reasonable.