An Italian appeals court on Wednesday
acquitted right-to-die activists Mina Welby and Marco Cappato
for helping
multiple-sclerosis sufferer Davide Trentini commit assisted
suicide in Switzerland in April 2017, upholding the
first-instance court's acquittal.
The prosecutor in the appeals case had requested their
acquittal.
53-year-old Tuscan Trentini, who was accompanied to the Dignitas
clinic in Zurich by Welby with Cappato's help, voiced the hope
in a farewell letter that Italy would become a "civilised"
country where euthanasia would be possible.
"I really hope that
Italy becomes a more civilised country, finally passing a law
that lets people end enormous suffering, without end, without
remedy, in their own homes, close to their loved ones, without
having to go abroad, with all the difficulties involved without
excessive expenditure," wrote Trentini.
The scientific head of Exit Italia, of which Trentini was a
member, Silvio Vitale, said: "I don't hesitate to express
our satisfaction that Davide Trentini, one of our members, was
able to legally die in Switzerland.
"There remains the anger that he could not do so in Italy
among his friends".
Vitale said "I, like many other doctors, "am ready to do as
my colleagues in Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium do, and I
hope that day is not far off.
Vitale added: "A thank you to Mina Welby who accompanied him,
challenging the hypocrisy of Italian law".
Many Italians including the headline-grabbing blind and
tetraplegic disc jockey DJ Fabo have been helped to commit
euthanasia by the campaigning Luca Coscioni Association, and
especially its treasurer Cappato.
Welby, the co-chair of the association, like Cappato reported
herself to Carabinieri police for assisting a suicide, which is
a crime in Italy.
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