Marche man becomes 1st Italian to commit assisted suicide

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 16 - A 44-year-old Marche man who had been tetraplegic since a car crash 12 years ago has become the first person to legally commit assisted suicide in Italy, the Luca Coscioni right-to-die association said Thursday.
    The association said Federico Carboni died at 11:05 on Thursday, revealing his real name for the first time.
    The association had given Carboni the fake name of Mario during the long legal battle for him to be allowed to commit assisted suicide.
    It had to launch a fund-raising campaign for the 5,000 euros needed for the drugs that ended Carboni's life after the green light was given on February 9.
    Authorization was given on the basis of the precedent established by the case of DJ Fabo, a tetraplegic disk jockey who was helped to commit suicide in a Swiss clinic by right-to-die activist Marco Cappato, a leading member of the Coscioni association, in 2017.
    In a landmark sentence, the Constitutional Court cleared Cappato, saying assisted suicide could be legitimate in some cases if the person wanting to die was in intolerable suffering.
    The court also called on parliament to pass legislation dealing with end-of-life issues, something that it has failed to do so far.
    In February the same court rejected a petition to stage a referendum on legalising euthanasia.
    In a similar case, another Marche man, who had been paralysed from the head down for 18 years, died Monday night after opting to end his life with deep sedation.
    Fabio Ridolfi, 46, had been refused access to assisted suicide despite the Constitutional Court ruling.
    But the Marche regional ethics panel gave him the green light to end his life by deep sedation.
    Photo: pro- euthanasia campaigners. (ANSA).