As of: January 31, 2024, 10:57 a.m
By: Julia Stanton, Julian Mayr
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After the death of her son, a woman in Switzerland commits assisted suicide.
Her husband in Italy only found out about it days later.
Now he is making serious allegations.
Turin - When people want to end their lives of their own free will, that is in itself a sensitive issue.
In 2021, a majority of Germans still supported terminally ill patients being able to commit assisted suicide by administering lethal medication.
However, active euthanasia is prohibited in Germany – just as it is in Italy.
There, a 55-year-old woman from Turin still decided to end her life.
She traveled to Basel, Switzerland, to seek euthanasia at a clinic.
Her family knew nothing about it and only found out about her death via email.
Italian woman (55) travels to Basel for euthanasia and sends mysterious message shortly before her death
The woman from Turin had suffered from severe depression since the beginning of 2023 after the death of her son and was receiving psychiatric treatment.
The 55-year-old nevertheless secretly decided to seek euthanasia in a Swiss clinic and died on October 12, 2023 in Basel.
In general, we do not report on suicides so that such cases do not encourage possible imitators. Reporting only takes place if the circumstances receive particular public attention. If you or someone you know is suffering from an existential life crisis or depression, please contact the telephone counseling service on 0800-1110111. Help with depression and other psychological emergency situations is also available at www.deutsche-depressionshilfe.de.
Shortly before her death, she sent a cryptic message containing her final wishes to her legal advisor: “Go home, turn off the electricity and water, donate my clothes to charity, and entrust the urn with the ashes of our son, mine Man on”.
The legal advisor then immediately contacted the deceased's husband, who lived in Italy, and filed a missing person report.
However, by this point it was already too late to reverse her decision.
Husband finds out about his wife's death through an email
The tragic news of his wife's death reached the husband, who was in Canada for work reasons, via email.
Unfortunately, the clinic's message initially ended up in the spam folder, meaning the man only found out about it a few days later.
The widower is now making serious allegations against the clinic.
“Nobody informed us about my wife’s trip to Switzerland,” he recently told Italian daily
La Stampa
.
“We couldn't try to dissuade her or say goodbye to her, either before or after her death.
We only received her ashes.” According to him, family members were optimistic that the woman would overcome her depression.
A woman (55) from Turin received euthanasia in October 2023.
Her family didn't know about it.
(Symbolic image) © Detlef Heese/IMAGO
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The family was able to dissuade the woman from euthanasia in the summer
The woman had already visited the clinic in Basel in July 2023.
At that time, her relatives traveled after her and were able to stop her from having suicidal thoughts.
But the family's requests to the clinic to speak to the person who should have accompanied the woman on the euthanasia journey were in vain.
Silvio Viale, councilor of Turin and scientific director of the non-profit organization Exit Italia, which campaigns for the legalization of euthanasia, spoke in favor of the institution in question: “I am sure that the Swiss clinic that accepted the case has all the health reasons "He respected the woman's decision and was grateful that the clinic enabled her to die with dignity.
There is currently no official statement from the clinic regarding the incident.
(jus/jm)
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