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Welby campaign
Welby campaign
Piergiorgio Welby, co-president of the Luca Coscioni Association for freedom of scientific research, whose body has been devastated by muscular dystrophy, had pleaded repeatedly to be allowed to die, and his case has divided politicians and doctors in Italy, where euthanasia is illegal and the Church forbids it.
Welby, 60, asked Italy's president this fall to legalize the withdrawal of his life-sustaining treatment, and Italy's tiny but vocal Radical Party has championed his cause.
Gradually paralyzed by the condition diagnosed when he was a teenager, Welby has been confined to bed for years, and now can barely move his lips and eyebrows. He receives nourishment through a tube, breathes with a respirator and communicates through a voice synthesizer.
The video
Judge Angela Salvio ruled that Welby has a constitutional right to halt his treatment. The constitution states that no one can be forced to undergo health treatments unless ordered by law and that the law cannot violate "respect of the human person," but Salvio wrote that this right "is not concretely protected" by other law.
The Italian radical party members are ready "to unplug the pulmotor" the keeps Piergiorgio Welby alive if he will ask for it. "We won't abide by what the torturers say. When Welby will ask us to intervene, we'll do so, regardless of the court procedures and deadlines", said the party secretary, Rita Bernardini. "Welby - she said - has been leading this battle with us for 82 days. After his official request to President Giorgio Napolitano, fortunately a political debate has started, which many politicians wanted to keep shelved in the parliament committees. The radicals are in touch with doctors ready to disobey the law, to put an end to Welby's suffering in his last, agonizing days".
BBC: Italian man sparks euthanasia row
Piero Welby's Association
The Luca Coscioni Association, founded in 2002, is named after Dr. Luca Coscioni a former Professor of Environmental Economics at the University of Viterbo, Italy, who was training for the New York Marathon when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
In 2000, Dr. Coscioni decided to run as a candidate in the online elections for the National Committee of an Italian political party called “Italian Radicals” - a movement known for its campaigns to promote secularism and civil rights and to denounce prohibitions on scientific research. Dr. Coscioni was elected to the body, and the IR made the struggle for freedom for stem cell research the central theme of their electoral campaign.
On the occasion of the 2001 Italian elections, Dr. Coscioni ran with Former European Commissioner Emma Bonino's group, tha Radical Party.
Though Dr. Coscioni was not elected to the Italian Parliament, he received the support of hundreds of scientists, physicians, patients as well as political and cultural figures.
Throughout 2004, the Luca Coscioni Association campaigned against a proposed UN convention that would have o banned nuclear transfer of embryonic stem cells for therapeutic reasons considering at the same level of reproductive cloning.
In October 2004, dozens of representatives of Scientific Academies from three continents as well as researchers, intellectuals and advocates led by Nobel Prize Ivar Giaever were convened by the Luca Coscioni Association in Rome to promote an international meeting on freedom of research.
On that occasion, participants committed themselves to the constitution of an entity called “World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research” to act as a permanent forum to address issues related to freedom and research worldwide starting from the launching of an appeal to the United Nations on the eve of the discussion on the proposed “human cloning” ban. The petition was signed by 77 Nobel Laureates and endorsed by the U.S. Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research.
Over the summer of 2004, and then again in spring 2005, the Luca Coscioni Association was been at the forefront of a referendum campaign to repeal a law approved by the Italian Parliament in February 2004, which banned In Vitro Fertilization and, among other things, established a prohibitionist regime on embryonic stem cells research.
Piergiorgio Welby, co-president of the Luca Coscioni Association for freedom of scientific research, whose body has been devastated by muscular dystrophy, had pleaded repeatedly to be allowed to die, and his case has divided politicians and doctors in Italy, where euthanasia is illegal and the Church forbids it. Welby, 60, asked Italy's president this fall to legalize the withdrawal of his life-sustaining treatment, and Italy's tiny but vocal Radical Party has championed his cause.
Gradually paralyzed by the condition diagnosed when he was a teenager, Welby has been confined to bed for years, and now can barely move his lips and eyebrows. He receives nourishment through a tube, breathes with a respirator and communicates through a voice synthesizer.
The video
Judge Angela Salvio ruled that Welby has a constitutional right to halt his treatment. The constitution states that no one can be forced to undergo health treatments unless ordered by law and that the law cannot violate "respect of the human person," but Salvio wrote that this right "is not concretely protected" by other law.
The Italian radical party members are ready "to unplug the pulmotor" the keeps Piergiorgio Welby alive if he will ask for it. "We won't abide by what the torturers say. When Welby will ask us to intervene, we'll do so, regardless of the court procedures and deadlines", said the party secretary, Rita Bernardini. "Welby - she said - has been leading this battle with us for 82 days. After his official request to President Giorgio Napolitano, fortunately a political debate has started, which many politicians wanted to keep shelved in the parliament committees. The radicals are in touch with doctors ready to disobey the law, to put an end to Welby's suffering in his last, agonizing days".
BBC: Italian man sparks euthanasia row
Piero Welby's Association
The Luca Coscioni Association, founded in 2002, is named after Dr. Luca Coscioni a former Professor of Environmental Economics at the University of Viterbo, Italy, who was training for the New York Marathon when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
In 2000, Dr. Coscioni decided to run as a candidate in the online elections for the National Committee of an Italian political party called “Italian Radicals” - a movement known for its campaigns to promote secularism and civil rights and to denounce prohibitions on scientific research. Dr. Coscioni was elected to the body, and the IR made the struggle for freedom for stem cell research the central theme of their electoral campaign.
On the occasion of the 2001 Italian elections, Dr. Coscioni ran with Former European Commissioner Emma Bonino's group, tha Radical Party.
Though Dr. Coscioni was not elected to the Italian Parliament, he received the support of hundreds of scientists, physicians, patients as well as political and cultural figures.
Throughout 2004, the Luca Coscioni Association campaigned against a proposed UN convention that would have o banned nuclear transfer of embryonic stem cells for therapeutic reasons considering at the same level of reproductive cloning.
In October 2004, dozens of representatives of Scientific Academies from three continents as well as researchers, intellectuals and advocates led by Nobel Prize Ivar Giaever were convened by the Luca Coscioni Association in Rome to promote an international meeting on freedom of research.
On that occasion, participants committed themselves to the constitution of an entity called “World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research” to act as a permanent forum to address issues related to freedom and research worldwide starting from the launching of an appeal to the United Nations on the eve of the discussion on the proposed “human cloning” ban. The petition was signed by 77 Nobel Laureates and endorsed by the U.S. Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research.
Over the summer of 2004, and then again in spring 2005, the Luca Coscioni Association was been at the forefront of a referendum campaign to repeal a law approved by the Italian Parliament in February 2004, which banned In Vitro Fertilization and, among other things, established a prohibitionist regime on embryonic stem cells research.
