End of life, Cappato cleared of charges of assisted suicide: ‘It was excessive treatment’

Milan, 11 March. (LaPresse) – The Court of Milan has dismissed charges of assisted suicide against Marco Cappato in the cases of Elena Altamira, the 69-year-old cancer patient from Veneto who travelled to Switzerland for assisted suicide on 2 August 2022, and 82-year-old R. N., who did so on 25 November 2022, both of whom were terminally ill. Judge Sara Cipolla accepted the request for dismissal by prosecutor Luca Gaglio and former deputy prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano, according to whom differentiating access to assisted suicide between patients who “need (also) life-sustaining treatment to remain alive” and others “who only need therapeutic treatment and for whom life-sustaining measures” are “only imminent” over time due to “entirely accidental factors, which depend on the type of pathology” is “contrary to Article 3 of the Constitution”. The 16-page ruling states that, in light of the most recent ruling of the Constitutional Court (No. 66 of 2025) on end-of-life issues, access to assisted suicide for the man and woman who were accompanied to Switzerland by the treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Association was granted to “patients” who are “kept alive by means” of “life-sustaining” treatment intended precisely as already “medically prescribed”. For example, the “new cycle of chemotherapy” that had been “proposed” to Altamira or the “PEG placement” for R.N., both of which were “refused” because they were “useless”, would have been “excessive treatment” according to “medical science”. Insisting would have been “undignified” for the “sensitivity and perception” of the two patients.