Bologna woman, 89, commits assisted suicide in Swiss clinic

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 8 - An 89-year-olfd Bologna woman suffering from a severe form of Parkinson's Disease on Wednesday committed assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic helped by two Italian right-to-die activists who risk five-12 years in jail for committing the act, still a crime in Italy.
    Paola R., the 89-year-old woman from Bologna, who "suffered from Parkinson's disease in a very serious form and who had contacted the Luca Coscioni Association, died in the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland, carrying out assisted suicide," said the association.
    She had been taken to Zurich Tuesday by the two activists of Legal Euthanasia and the Coscioni Association, Felicetta Maltese and Virginia Fiume, who knowingly committed an act of civil disobedience to Italy's law against euthanasia and assisted suicide.
    Paola was not kept alive by life-support treatment, so she was excluded from the possibility of assisted suicide in Italy.
    Some patients who have been kept alive by aggressive life support systems have been allowed to end their lives on the basis of a high court ruling in Italy.
    Coscioni treasurer Marco Cappato is currently on trial in at least one case having been acquitted in others.
    photo: Cappato (ANSA).