Diritto penale e questioni di fine vita: il suicidio assistito e l'eutanasia.

Il presente elaborato si propone di esaminare il tema del fine vita, con specifico riferimento al suicidio assistito e all’eutanasia. Dopo aver evidenziato la netta distinzione tra rifiuto/rinuncia del trattamento sanitario anche salva vita, aiuto al suicidio ed eutanasia, ci si sofferma, in primo luogo, sull’analisi della legge n. 219/2017, rubricata “Norme in materia di consenso informato e di disposizioni anticipate di trattamento”, che riconosce la massima ampiezza all’autodeterminazione terapeutica nell’ambito della relazione medico-paziente. In secondo luogo, si esamina il tema del suicidio assistito, soffermandosi sulle pronunce della giurisprudenza costituzionale e di merito. Successivamente, in una prospettiva comparata, viene fornita un’ampia analisi delle discipline della morte medicalmente assistita attualmente vigente in diversi ordinamenti. Infine, si esamina il tema dell’eutanasia, in particolare concentrandosi sulla donazione di organi post eutanasia, sul rischio della slippery slope e sulla necessità di tutelare i soggetti vulnerabili.

3D bioprinted organ models for drug screening

In recent years, 3D bioprinting has emerged as an innovative and versatile technology able to produce in vitro models that resemble the native spatial organization of organ tissues, by employing or more bioinks composed of various types of cells suspended in hydrogels. Natural and semi-synthetic hydrogels are extensively used for 3D bioprinting models since they can mimic the natural composition of the tissues, they are biocompatible and bioactive with customizable mechanical properties, allowing to support cell growth. The possibility to tailor hydrogels mechanical properties by modifying the chemical structures to obtain photo-crosslinkable materials, while maintaining their biocompatibility and biomimicry, make their use versatile and suitable to simulate a broad spectrum of physiological features. In this PhD Thesis, 3D bioprinted in vitro models with tailored mechanical properties and physiologically-like features were fabricated. AlgMa-based bioinks were employed to produce a living platform with gradient stiffness, with the aim to create an easy to handle and accessible biological tool to evaluate mechanobiology. In addition, GelMa, collagen and IPN of GelMa and collagen were used as bioinks to fabricate a proof-of-concept of 3D intestinal barrier, which include multiple cell components and multi-layered structure. A useful rheological guide to drive users to the selection of the suitable bioinks for 3D bioprinting and to correlate the model’s mechanical stability after crosslinking is proposed. In conclusion, a platform capable to reproduce models with physiological gradient stiffness was developed and the fabrication of 3D bioprinted intestinal models displaying a good hierarchical structure and cells composition was fully reported and successfully achieved. The good biological results obtained demonstrated that 3D bioprinting can be used for the fabrications of 3D models and that the mechanical properties of the external environment plays a key role on the cell pathways, viability and morphology.