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This book continues the collaboration between the department of BioLaw of the University of Florence and the non-profit association Madre Provetta, to contribute to a project of study and research that can build towards a common European law on Bioethics. In view of the professional activity in which they are engaged, the authors are among the leading experts in their respective fields on the issues addressed. Biotechnologies have rendered both birth and death more complex, which explains why the approach must be multidisciplinary. In effect, the research ranges from the medical and scientific sphere to the fields of law, sociology and philosophy and through to the institutional dimension. The leitmotif is the responsibility and self-determination of the individual: an anthology addressing issues concerning the beginning and the end of life. Particular focus is placed on the aspect of legal update in the light of recent case law, which is increasingly called upon, on the one hand to lend support to the legislator, and on the other to adapt national legislation to the rules and principles emerging from the supranational and European institutions.

In recent decades the clinical condition of the permanent vegetative state has raised debates regarding the treatment of those patients who, as a result of brain damage, have irreversibly lost consciousness while biologically continuing to live. The media have also provided ample coverage of celebrated cases, such as those of Karen Quinlan, Anthony Bland, Terry Schiavo and Eluana Englaro. Behind these names are the stories of individuals, moral dilemmas that incite reflection and throw down challenges to the law. This book contains essays by experts in various disciplinary areas – philosophy, religion and law – and is designed to offer a contribution to the debate, so as to clarify which instruments can best protect human rights and dignity even in borderline clinical situations.

For centuries, the philosophical thought has questioned notions such as "person", "value" and "quality" of life, "rights", "suffering", "life", "death"; but the problems that have arisen in recent decades due to the application of life-prolonging technologies have led to a rethinking of the philosophical and everyday meanings and uses of these notions. This book intends to be a reflection on some aspects of the debate on the moral lawfulness of non-voluntary euthanasia, through a critical discussion of the main philosophical notions used by bioethics.