THEL assisted suicide is still a crime in Italy, And many people desperate from illness and suffering turn to the Luca Coscioni Association and Marco Cappato for help to end their lives without hope of recovery. “It is unworthy for a civilized country to continue to tolerate the exile of the clandestine death of people in fact discriminated against by the sentence of the Constitutional Court but who in any case suffer unbearable and irreversible suffering”, declares Marco Cappato, treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Association, who will go tomorrow to report himself at the Carabinieri station in via Fosse Ardeatine 4 in Milan at 9.45. who has been fighting on the front line for years to help people like Mr. Romano.
Who was Mr. Romano
Mr. Romano, 82 years old, of Tuscan origins and residing in Peschiera Borromeo, was affected by Parkinsons since 2020 and was not kept alive by life support treatments, therefore excluded from the possibility of accessing assisted suicide in Italy as it lacked one of the requirements of the Cappato della Consulta ruling. Former journalist and advertiser, he was confined to bed by illness, between severe muscle pain, in a irreversible condition which prevented him from reading, writing and doing anything on his own. After having matured the choice to end his suffering and realizing theimpossibility of proceeding in Italyasked Marco Cappato for help to reach Switzerland and avoid legal consequences for his family members.
Assisted suicide: the choice to die
“My dad just confirmed his choice to die. I came from California to be here with him these days. In California, the choice my dad made is legal, and in the event of an illness like his, he could have chosen to die at home, surrounded by his loved ones and family. We had to make this trip to come to Switzerland so that he could make this choice and I hope that in Italy, soon, it will be possible for people to be able to make this choice at home and die at home, surrounded by loved ones”. words of his daughter Francesca.
Assisted suicide, a right denied
It’s been 4 years since the Constitutional Court the first time he asked Parliament to intervene “in a spirit of loyal and dialectic institutional collaboration” allowing him any “appropriate reflection and initiative”. The Court intervening later in 2019, in the face of Parliament’s inaction, issued a decision which decriminalize assisted suicide only for patients with certain conditions check with the NHS.
At the same time, he reiterated his call for a comprehensive law that respects the end-of-life choices of sick people. In August I resumed the civil disobedience action, accepting Elena Altamira’s request to be accompanied to Switzerland, to overcome the discrimination against the sick who, like Elena and Romano, are not dependent on health treatments. “I have now decided to also accept Romano’s request for help and to avoid him from a senseless and violent fury,” explains Cappato.
Luca Coscioni Association
Civil disobedience
For Marco Cappato it is a new civil disobedience, since Romano is not “kept alive by life-sustaining treatments.” Therefore, like the 69-year-old Elena Altamira from Veneto, she does not fall within the cases provided for by the sentence 242/2019 of the Constitutional Court on the Cappato \ Dj Fabo case for access to assisted suicide in Italy.
In our country, thanks to the civil disobedience of Cappato for the help provided to Fabiano Antoniani and therefore thanks to the sentence 242 of the Constitutional Court that has the force of law, assisted suicide is possible and legal when the sick person who requests it is affected by an irreversible pathology, a source of intolerable physical or psychological suffering, fully capable of making free and informed decisions and kept alive by treatments of life support and these conditions have been verified by the NHS.
Subsisting and verified requirements for Federico Carboni who last June was instead able to access assisted suicide without the help provided constituting a crime.
A new civil disobedience by Marco Cappato, after that of last August, with the aim of overcome the current discriminations between sick people and allow full respect for the will of people affected by irreversible pathologies, a source of suffering, fully capable but not yet kept alive by life-sustaining treatments.
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