Second assisted suicide in Lombardy, fourteen in Italy
Ten more people ask for voluntary death. The government bill that, if approved, would prevent aid to suicide remains at a standstill
Key points
The second case of assisted voluntary death in Lombardy, provided by the National Health Service, brings to fourteen the number of people in Italy who have requested and obtained access to assisted suicide, in the wake of the Constitutional Court ruling that dictated the conditions for the non-punishment of those who provide assisted suicide. After 'Serena', a citizen of Lombardy, suffering from progressive multiple sclerosis, who put an end to her suffering in January 2025, another person has been granted access. And there are still ten people throughout Italy who ask for support for voluntary death.
In the absence of anational law, regions apply the criteria dictated by the Constitutional Court in its Ruling 242/2019 on the Cappato Dj Fabo case. Currently in the Senate, the debate on theend-of-life bill promoted by the majority has been postponed again.
The collection of signatures for 'Liberi Subito'
Instead, it is the Luca Coscioni Association that is preparing to collect signatures in Lombardy, together with Lazio, Piedmont and Calabria on the proposed regional popular initiative law "Liberi Subito", to ensure the application of the Constitutional Court rulings on assisted suicide.
In these days the national mobilisation of the Luca Coscioni Association has begun to ask the Government for the definitive withdrawal of the text, presented nine months ago and since then blocked in the Senate without any progress. Until 19 April, there will be information desks throughout Italia, where volunteers will inform citizens and collect adhesions to the public appeal. The initiative involves over 100 appointments in more than 80 Italian cities.
The request to the government to withdraw the text
'While Parliament remains at a standstill, our national mobilisation has begun with over 100 initiatives in more than 80 Italian cities to demand the definitive withdrawal of a text that weakens already recognised rights. After the umpteenth postponement to a date to be determined of the debate in the Senate,' declare Filomena Gallo and Marco Cappato, National Secretary and Treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Association, 'we ask the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, to take a step back and leave Parliament free to discuss a law that does not cancel the rights already established by the Constitutional Court and that truly guarantees people's freedom of choice. If the government's text had already been in force, for example, the person who was granted aid to voluntary death in Lombardy would have been refused, as would the other 13 people who have been helped to die so far'.
