The new publication ‘Dialogue on medically assisted suicide’ by the Scientific Council of the Courtyard of the Gentiles, issued by Cnr Edizioni and edited by Cinzia Caporale and Laura Palazzani, is part of the current debate on medically assisted suicide that followed the Constitutional Court ruling no. 242/2019 and addresses the topic from a variety of perspectives with an interdisciplinary look. Giuliano Amato, in the introduction, writes:
‘Assisted suicide is an issue which offers strongly held and diverse opinions. They often have religious sources, but not exclusively. The paper published here observes, and specifically at its opening, that the difference between letting people die and helping them to die has epistemological sources and there is no voluntarism, of any kind, that can erase them. Of such, we of the Courtyard, are accustomed to acknowledging, it is indeed, almost always, our starting point; departure towards finding a meeting point, which does not sacrifice anyone’s opinion, but allows for convergence towards solutions, which in any case consider the views of everyone. This is what has happened this time, albeit with difficulties and doubts that remain open to further reflection. Certainly, we were united by our respect for each other’s principles […]. Yet, what allowed us to proceed in a common exploration […] was the shared willingness not to put them explicitly in the field when faced with circumstances where a very strong and strongly perceived common factor was and is for all of us dominant: human compassion, which is both a feeling of solidarity and a source of solidarity action.’
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