The importance of legal proxy in end-of-life decisions in some western european countries

This paper shows the codification of the role of surrogate in end-of-life decisions. After providing a general overview of patient autonomy by applying an ethical approach and by examining the two main types of patient authonomy - individualist view of autonomy and relational autonomy - the authors focus on "surrogate will". In addition, this contribution examines examples of nomination of legal proxies established in national laws governing end-of-life decision making in Roman-speaking countries (Italy, France, Portugal and Spain), the English-speaking countries (Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), and German-speaking countries (Austria, germany and switzerland). The paper also studies the recent national laws; in particular, the Italian law n. 219 of December 2017 and the different modifications of the France Code de la Santé Publique of March 2015 and of February 2016. The contribution demonstrate that some national parliaments have already noticed the practical problems coming from the application of "living will" by highlighting the role of legal proxies as it is emphasized by the ethical community