This week Sardinia’s Regional Council approved a law regulating assisted suicide, becoming the second Italian region to do so after Tuscany, which passed similar legislation last February. Assisted suicide, or medically assisted dying, involves a patient self-administering a lethal drug under specific conditions.

In Italy, the practice became legal in 2019 after a Constitutional Court ruling, but Parliament has yet to pass a national law defining procedures and timelines, despite repeated calls from the Court. In the absence of nationwide regulations, some regions have acted independently. Since healthcare is partly under regional jurisdiction—a point still debated—Sardinia has now joined Tuscany in establishing its own rules on the matter.