Overview
- The Umbrian regional assembly approved the popular-initiative bill backed by the Luca Coscioni association by an 11–6 vote with three abstentions, making Umbria the fifth Italian region to pass such a law.
- Each local health authority must set up a permanent multidisciplinary commission to verify eligibility, with specified members including a palliative doctor, psychiatrist, anesthetist, psychologist, medico legale and nurse, and commissions must be established within 60 days of the law taking effect.
- The law bans pay for commission members and requires the commission to send its evaluation to the regional ethics committee as part of the oversight process.
- Lawmakers revised the text to remove fixed multi‑day deadlines and instead use a flexible timing rule described as 'compatible with the patient’s clinical conditions' after Constitutional Court objections to rigid limits.
- Regional approval follows years of national inaction and high-profile advocacy, notably the campaign of journalist Laura Santi, but the government has previously challenged other regional laws in the Constitutional Court so national impugnment of the Umbria text remains a real possibility.