In December 2017, the Italian Parliament approved Law no. 219/2017, which entered into force on 31 January 2018. This vindicates for the first time the rights of capable adults in Italy to create a living will and nominate a surrogate, thus enabling them to cater to their potential future loss of capacity in a manner that more robustly reflects their values, wishes and beliefs and, to that extent, their autonomy. This article will critically explore the position of the new legislation on living wills specifically, locating it within a broader transformation in the direction of patient autonomy. It will compare the law on living wills in a number of other European jurisdictions and the only prior effort to reform Italian law on this issue—the markedly more paternalistic Bill 2350 which was debated in the Italian Parliament in 2009 in one form in 2009 and another in 2011, but failed to pass in either. It will conclude not just by highlighting the overall significance of the changed position on living wills but also considering how some important issues could have been better clarified through the development of detailed Ministry of Health Circulaire of February 2018.

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意大利“生前遗嘱”新法：批判性分析

2017 年 12 月，意大利议会批准了第 219/2017，于 2018 年 1 月 31 日生效。这首次证明了意大利有能力的成年人有权制定生前遗嘱并提名代理人，从而使他们能够在更有力地反映了他们的价值观、愿望和信仰，并在此程度上反映了他们的自主权。本文将批判性地探讨新立法关于生前遗嘱的立场，将其定位在朝着患者自主方向更广泛的转变中。它将比较一些其他欧洲司法管辖区的生前遗嘱法，以及在这个问题上改革意大利法律的唯一先前努力——2009 年在意大利议会以一种形式在 2009 年和另一种形式中辩论的明显更为家长式的 2350 号法案。 2011年，但都没有通过。它不仅会强调改变生前遗嘱立场的总体意义，还会考虑如何通过制定详细的卫生部 2018 年 2 月通告来更好地澄清一些重要问题。