A mutliple-sclerosis (MS) sufferer
who committed assisted suicide in Switzerland this week voiced
the hope in a farewell letter that Italy would become a
"civilised" country where euthanasia would be possible.
"I really hope that Italy becomes a more civilised country,
finally passing a law that lets people end enormous suffering,
without end, without remedy, in their own homes, close to their
loved ones, without having to go abroad, with all the
difficulties involved without excessive expenditure," wrote
Davide Trentini, a 53-year-old Tuscan accompanied to the
Dignitas clinic in Zurich by right-to-die activist Mina Welby.
"I will leave for my dream holiday", wrote Trentini.
The scientific head of Exit Italia, of which Trentini was a
member, Silvio Vitale, said Friday: "I don't hesitate to express
our satisfaction that Davide Trentini, one of our members, was
able to legally die in Switzerland.
"There remains the anger that he could not do so in Italy
among his friends".
Vitale said "I, like many other doctors, "am ready to do as
my colleagues in Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium do, and I
hope that day is not far off.
Vitale added: "A thank you to Minal Welby who accompanied
him, challening the hypcrosy of Italian law".
Trentini, committed assisted suicide on Thursday.
Many Italians including the headline-grabbing blind and
tetraplegic disc jockey DJ Fabo have been helped to commit
euthanasia by the campaigning Luca Coscioni Association, and
especially its treasurer Marco Cappato.
Welby, the co-chair of the association, said she would report
herself to Carabinieri police today for assisting a suicide,
which is a crime in Italy.
The Coscioni Association has helped 268 people to die and has
accompanied three to the Swiss Dignitas clinic, most taken there
by Cappato.
MS is a debilitating nerve-wasting disease. Davide had been
suffering from it for 26 years, since 1993, and had found his
recent years unbearable, sources said.
Welby is the widow of Piergiorgio Welby, an Italian poet,
painter and activist whose three-month-long battle to establish
his right to die in 2006 led to a debate about euthanasia in
Italy, rekindled by DJ Fabo's and other Swiss suicides.
A bill on end-of-life issues including living wills, but not
euthanasia, is before parliament amid criticism from the
Catholic Church and conservative politicians.
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