SEight years have passed since the entry into force of the law on living wills (‘art. 4 of Law 219 came into force, as the Ministry of Health reminds us, on January 31, 2018). And if, on the eve of the anniversary, the telephones ofLuca Coscioni Association ringing continuously is because this video started to circulate, and to make people understand how little they know about their rights. Little did Caterina Banin’s husband know: his name was Ezio, he suffered from ALS and, as his wife tells us in the video, he hanged himself in the garage of his home when the doctors suggested a tracheotomy. «If he had known that he could die peacefully in his home, perhaps Ezio would have decided to live a little longer‘”. He would have chosen assisted suicide, in his home, with his family nearby.
“If my husband had known, he wouldn’t have hanged himself.” A story, to talk about living wills again
But the doctors had not given him alternatives: they had not told him that it is possible to do deep and continuous sedation. Not that it is possible to have medical help in voluntary death (assisted suicide). The lack of information on end-of-life rights is constantly denounced by the Luca Coscioni Association which also constantly tries to fill the gaps. For example by strengthening his End of Life White Number (06 9931 3409): its information and orientation service dedicated to citizens, patients, family members and healthcare workers.
The lawyer Alessia Cicatelli, member of the Board of the Luca Coscioni Association for freedom of scientific research, has compared the legislation on assisted suicide in all the countries of the world, and summarized them in the map above (here is the link to the interactive map).
Caterina Banin’s appeal to the Ministry of Health and the need for information
Caterina’s public denunciation is an open request to the Ministry of Health and the medical community. Since the launch of the video on Monday 26 January, an average of over 50 calls to the White Number have arrived per day (compared to the 29 average in 2025) from people who until then were unaware of their rights regarding the end of life. A significant figure considering that in all 12 months of 2025 the requests received by the Luca Coscioni Association (adding telephone calls to the White Number, emails and letters) were 16,000, on average 43 per day. In particular, the questions concern euthanasia and medically assisted suicide, interruption of therapies and deep palliative sedation.
Mario Riccio, the anesthetist who assisted Piergiorgio Welby
In response to this need for information, not satisfied by the institutions, from today and for the next two weeks the White Number team will be strengthened by a team of doctors. Coordinating them is Mario Riccio, the anesthetist who assisted Piergiorgio Welby in 2006 and who in Italy followed the medical part of the first cases of assisted suicide, such as that of Federico Carboni.
«In recent years, direct contact with citizens and family members has given us very clear data: there is a strong demand for practical and clinical information on the end of life which often he finds no answers either in healthcare facilities or in the relationship with treating doctors. People don’t ask for shortcuts, but certainties.”
What happens if I can’t express myself? Ignorance about the living will of patients and doctors
For example, explains Riccio, they want to know what happens if they are no longer able to express themselves, how pain is managed, if and how they can stop treatments that they perceive as disproportionate, and what real role the trustee indicated in the DAT has.
«This difficulty also concerns many healthcare workers, who do not always have updated tools or adequate training to correctly orient patients. The result is that rights already provided for by law remain, in fact, little known or applied in an uneven manner.”
In recent weeks, Cristiano, after the death of his partner Patrizia, had also sent a message similar to that of Caterina. Following a stroke, Patrizia was no longer able to communicate her wishes, she was unable to choose assisted suicide, she lived in conditions she would not have chosen. The absence of a living will, an instrument unknown to them, meant that the State and the doctors had to decide for her.
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