Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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| Italian assisted suicide campaigners |
The case that has been exploited to generate support for the refendum is that of a quadriplegic man, who asked doctors to end his life after becoming paralyzed from a car accident ten years ago.
Acording to an article by Hannah Roberts in the Politico Campaigners launched a petition for a referendum after the 43-year-old man with a spinal-injury, identified as Mario, last April, won a landmark case to force the local health authority to carry out an assessment to determine if Mario is incurably ill and lucid. So far the health service has not carried out the order.
As much as the assisted suicide referendum is concerning, the Italian disability community is directly affected since every precedent setting Italian assisted suicide case concerns persons with disabilities.
For instance, in December 2019 a Milan court acquitted Italian assisted suicide activist, Marco Cappato, in the assisted suicide death of Fabiano Antoniani (known as DJ Fabo), who died in February 2017. Antoniani, who became disabled, died at the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland.
In July 2020 an Italian court acquitted assisted suicide activists Marco Cappato and Mina Welby in the assisted suicide death of Davide Trentini in the April 2017 Dignitas assisted suicide clinic death in Switzerland. Trentini was also a person with a disability. Cappato and Welby, who are leaders of the Luca Coscioni Italian assisted suicide association, turned themselves into Italian authorities the day after Trentini died by assisted suicide in order to challenge the law.
Clearly the assisted suicide lobby in Italy has focused on legalizing assisted suicide for people with disabilities.