Family and Equal Opportunities
Minister Eugenia Roccella and Disabilities Minister Alessandra
Locatelli on Friday attended the funeral in Nottingham of Indi
Gregory, the eight-month-old incurably ill British girl to whom
Premier Giorgia Meloni's government granted Italian citizenship
in early November as part of an unsuccessful bid to keep her
alive.
Indi died in the United Kingdom early on November 13 after
British doctors turned off her life-support machine.
The Meloni government had tried to bring her to a Rome hospital
for treatment but British judges ruled that it was not in her
best interests for the life support to continue.
"Dear brothers and sisters, dear Claire and Dean, I am here to
express on behalf of the Italian government our deep sorrow for
Indi's death," said Roccella.
"We did everything possible to bring her to Rome where she could
have had support, another chance for treatment, a second opinion
from other doctors in one of the best paediatric hospitals in
the world, the Bambino Gesù," she continued, adding: "We believe
that even when a sick person cannot be cured, they can be cared
for and looked after. To consider death as the 'best interest'
is to put life and death on the same level and for us this is
not right".
Pope Francis also sent a telegram of condolence for the funeral
at Nottingham Cathedral saying he was "was saddened to learn of
the death of little Indi Gregory, and sends condolences and the
assurance of his spiritual closeness to her parents, Dean and
Claire, and to all those who mourn the loss of this precious
daughter of God".
"We did what we could, everything that was possible," Meloni
said in a social-media post after Indi's death.
"Unfortunately, it was not enough. Have a good journey, little
Indi".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
