Italy's Constitutional Court shot down a referendum meant to ask Italian voters to decide whether to decriminalize assisted suicide, drawing to a new halt a long-standing battle by right-to-die advocates to have euthanasia recognized as legal in the predominantly Catholic country.

Assisted suicide remains against the law in Italy, with anyone helping another person to take their own life facing between five and 12 years in jail, despite recent efforts to change this regulation.

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In August 2021, a petition meant to pressure the government to call for a referendum on euthanasia collected 1.2 million signatures - many more than the 500,000 necessary to trigger a vote. 

For right-to-die activists, it was a strong message from the country signaling that people were ready to turn the law around euthanasia around.

But the court decided that the referendum, as proposed, did not guarantee enough protection "of human life in general, particularly with reference to weak and vulnerable persons." 

Radical Party member and pro-euthanasia activist Marco Cappato, one of the leading advocates of the referendum, said the court's decision was "bad news for those who suffer and will have to (face) even longer unbearable suffering against their will."

Who supports assisted suicide and who opposes it?

Despite the fact that assisted suicide is not the taboo it used to be in Italy, there are still many in the country who vocally oppose euthanasia, including the Catholic church and Catholic lawmakers.

The Vatican still believes the practice to be "intrinsically evil" and a "crime." Pope Francis recently condemned it as an unacceptable deviation from medical ethics.

Italian political parties remain split on the issue, with the center-left generally supporting it and the center-right opposed. 

But the message from the population is clear: 92 percent of Italians say they favor allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia, according to a 2019 poll by the SWG research group.

Does this decision mean euthanasia won't ever be permitted in Italy?

There has been significant progress in recent years.

In 2019, Italy's Constitutional Court declared assisted suicide to be legal in the case patients are afflicted by an incurable illness, find themselves under "intolerable" suffering (of either physical or psychological), and are capable of making their own "free and informed" decision about ending their life.

In November last year, the country recognized the right of a 43-year-old quadriplegic patient to pull the plug - without those assisting him in ending his life-risking jail time.

But anyone who does not fall under these particular requirements is forced to seek assistance in Switzerland, one of the few countries in Europe where euthanasia is legal, Belgium, the Netherlands, or Luxembourg. 

The Constitutional Court might have blocked the referendum. However, Italy's Parliament is still expected to decide on a law that would allow terminally ill patients to seek assisted suicide through the national health system. It would also protect doctors from any legal suits against them.