C.Wilhelmine Schett turns 85 on May 31, said Mina Welbyknown by all as the wife and battlemate of Piergiorgio Welby, activist who died in 2006 after many years of suffering due to muscular dystrophy. After the death of her husband, committed to the legal recognition of the right to euthanasia and al refusal of therapeutic persistenceMina continued to testify in public debates to the importance of issues such asself-determination of the personthe life choices and end of life and the relevance of aadequate assistance to the sick person. On the occasion of her birthday, we asked her a few questions to learn more about her history and her social commitment.
«Vita is the woman who loves you, the wind in your hair, the sun on your face, the night walk with a friend. Vita is also the woman who leaves you, a rainy day, the friend who disappoints you. […] Unfortunately what I have left is no longer life, it’s just a stubborn and senseless persistence in keeping biological functions active “
(Piergiorgio Welby)
Mina Welby, from teacher to activist
Born in San Candido (Bz) on May 31, 1937, she taught middle school in Merano for a few years and then continued teaching German in Rome, where she married Piergiorgio Welby. Since 2003 you are enrolled in the Italian Radicals and in theLuca Coscioni Associationof which he has been Co-President since 2011.
In 2015 together with Marco Cappato And Gustavo Fraticelli he founded the association SOS EUTHANASIA and in 2017, together with Cappato, he started a civil disobedience accompanying Davide Trentini, suffering from multiple sclerosis, to Switzerland to obtain assisted suicide.
Mina Welby
Civil disobedience, denied rights and self-denunciation
Following a self-report, Marco Cappato and Mina Welby ended up on trial at the Assize Court of Massa with theaccusation of instigation and aid to suicidepunished by article 580 of the Criminal Code with a penalty ranging from 5 to 12 years.
On 27 July 2020, the Court of Assizes of Massa has the two defendants acquitted because the fact does not exist for the part relating to the incitement to suicide and because the fact does not constitute a crime pursuant to sentence 242/2019 of the Constitutional Court for the part of the aid provided to Trentini. To the appeal of the PM la Court of Appeal of Genoa acquits Marco Cappato and Mina Welby definitively. After the judgment of the judges, Mina Welby said she wanted to continue civil disobedience until Parliament approves a law that protects and regulates the end of life in Italy.
Questions to Mina Welby
Mina, turns 85 today. Most of these dedicated to the fight for some fundamental rights, first of all that on the end of life. You can be an activist and change the history and life of many people at her age …
I don’t know if the lives of everyone I’ve met have improved. I learned and tried to live the best in order to be useful to others. To all citizens and to all small towns I say: let’s not leave anyone alone! This would be the best gift for my 85th birthday.
A long battle that is also above all a great promise of love …
Yes I have took over my husband Piergiorgio’s baton with the simplicity that has characterized our existence. Both accustomed, from life, to having to make sacrifices and to fight for health, to be happy. Together we “stole” minutes from time and built two lives of resilience, each helping the other, both happy. We confessed it a few hours before Piero died. For me he is not dead. It has become my strength. I couldn’t be in mourning. He struggled to truly give himself to others with his civil disobedience against the civil judge’s sentence, according to which he could not refuse artificial respiration, which became not only useless, but also painful and unbearable. It was an immense pain for me, but it was also my duty of conscience to collaborate and take the baton as his own. Even the catechism supported this in article 2278.
Mina Welby (Photo by Luca Coscioni Association)
Many sick people write to you and are in contact with you for information on the end of life. Why does she do it?
I saw my mother always ready to help, remembering poverty since she was a child and I always wanted to be like her. They often ask me for advice on how to do advance treatment arrangements. I take these precious requests to give information also on the law 219/17 on informed consent, I send them the Manual with the explanations of the law, drawn up by the Order of Psychologists of Lazio, to which I had had the honor of being able to collaborate with doctors and psychologists . Many people then ask me for information on assisted death both in Italy and abroad. I try to weigh such delicate requests. I invite you to reflect. We need a good ed effective regulation of health care and treatment. I wish the palliative care were applied more and better. I look forward to compulsory courses in the medical faculties for all healthcare professionals. My method is to put myself in the shoes of those who ask. I am happy to have around me, in the Luca Coscioni Association, professionals such as lawyers, doctors and psychiatrists who help, in fields in which I have no skills. Information regarding health rights and treatment is important for all citizens.
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As co-president of the Luca Coscioni Association, what is the appeal you want to make to Parliament and in particular to the Senate that must begin the discussion on the law approved in the chamber on assisted suicide?
All citizens are waiting and telling you – and I repeat it with the words of Piergiorgio Welby: “Hurry up!”. The Constitutional Court indicated with judgment 242/19 what are the needs of many citizens, but it is also necessary to evaluate that a good law for theself-determination of the very seriously ill do not leave anyone on the street: everyone must be able to do the their own conscious choices.
Three moments that he gladly remembers from his private life and three more from his life as an activist
I have so many beautiful moments in my life that I gladly remember. The first is the memory of my 18th birthday, my mother’s wishes, with some intimate confidences about her life. Then a trip to Czechoslovakia during which I brought secret messages sewn into my underwear for priests and nuns “Oltre Cortina” under communism. Equally exciting is the long moment of the afternoon with Piero on December 20, 2006, the day of his death. Before that, his suffering made me courageous to satisfy his urge to research end-of-life cures. From there the step to contact Marco Cappato to be helped to end his unspeakable suffering. Another terrible moment, but which would have turned out to be beneficial for my future as an activist, is the afternoon in which Marco Cappato published the search for people who manifested the choice to die. A request, which from inadequate and adverse as it seemed to me at the beginning, I then considered necessary. All these moments of private life have left deep traces on my public life and as an activist.
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