Euthanasia and the Right to Die: the Ultimate Taboo.

Abstract

In the many years of legal attempts in the English, Scottish, and Italian parliaments to overthrow a thinly-veiled hypocrisy surrounding the right to request medically-assisted dying for those whose life has become intolerable, there has been a wealth of discussion as well as misinformation on the topic of 'a good death'. In my contribution I will attempt to show how this taboo-laden 'ethically sensitive topic' (tema eticamente sensibile) has parallels in these two nations: through a narrative that encompasses parliamentary legislation, dictionaries, and other sources, I will endeavour to explore the shifting concept of suicide through the centuries, including the way in which death is seen to belong to the individual or to society. It is ultimately by freeing death of cultural structures that we can look at assisted suicide for the terminally ill, for example, as a question of human rights against inhumane suffering, rather than something taboo that must remain underground.