Marco Cappato reports himself for having accompanied Signora Elena to commit suicide in Switzerland

The treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Foundation,

, left the carabinieri barracks in via Fosse Ardeatine in Milan after having reported himself for having accompanied Mrs. Elena, a 69-year-old woman from the province of Venice suffering from a serious oncological pathology, to suicide assisted in Switzerland.

Before entering, he explained to the press: "Today I am going to the Carabinieri barracks to tell about the help provided to Elena, without which it would not have been possible to get to Switzerland. And I will explain to the Carabinieri that for the next people who ask us, if we will be in a position to do so, we will

. It will then be the task of justice to establish whether this is a crime or if there is a recurrence of the crime. Or if there is discrimination, as we believe, between patients".

"It seems clear to us as the Luca Coscioni association that there is

between patients", explains Cappato, according to whom there is discrimination between patients like Elena, who cannot access assisted suicide, and those like Federico Carboni, " who are dependent on life-sustaining treatments, can do so with many difficulties".

"It is a discriminatory treatment against a certain type of patient compared to others, whom I would struggle to define as privileged, but who at least have this tiring, tenuous possibility of reducing their suffering in the terminal phase of their lives".

"Our popular initiative law has never been discussed"

"There has been no response from Parliament, from politics, from the heads of the big parties. In these last two legislatures, our popular initiative law presented 9 years ago has never been discussed even for a minute. We have now reached this situation that in the face of Elena's request, we could turn away or give her the help she was looking for, in the light of the sun and fully assuming responsibility for this," added Cappato.

"Prison?

I hope it goes like with Fabo”

Marco Cappato is aware that having helped Elena die in Switzerland

but he hopes in a process similar to the one that led to his acquittal in the case of Dj Fabo, the 'push' for the subsequent intervention of the Consulta which has recognised, under certain conditions, the right to assisted suicide.

"With Fabo, a path has been opened that affects thousands of people. Our goal is not confrontation or victimhood or martyrdom. We are here with the hope that the courtrooms will be able to recognize a fundamental right, knowing that there is also the possibility of prison".

Elena's video message

“I found myself at a crossroads.

A longer road that would have taken me to hell, a shorter one that could have brought me here to Switzerland, to Basel: I chose the latter”.

These are the words that Mrs. Elena entrusted to a video message to tell her goodbye to her life.

The woman managed to carry out her will: “I would certainly have preferred to end my life in my bed, in my house – added the woman – holding my daughter's hand and my husband's hand.

Unfortunately this was not possible and, therefore, I had to come here alone".

Elena had received the diagnosis of

at the beginning of July 2021. Doctors immediately told her that she would have little chance of getting out of it.

After attempts at treatment, she was told that there were still a few months of survival: a situation that would become increasingly difficult.

"I have no life support to live, only a cortisone-based treatment: I could not do anything but wait for things to get worse," she explains in the farewell video.

“I decided to end my life before it was the disease, in a more painful way, that did it.

I talked to my family, got understanding and support.

I asked Cappato for help because I didn't want my loved ones, by accompanying me, to have legal repercussions for a decision that has always been mine alone".