Piergiorgio Welby

In a controversial move, Roman Catholic Church refused to allow a religious funeral, officially declaring that "Welby had repeatedly and publicly affirmed his desire to end his own life, which is against Catholic doctrine." A civil funeral was celebrated in a public square in Rome. In 2015, commentators contrasted the church's denial of a ceremony for Welby with a ceremony for Vittorio Casamonica, an alleged mafia boss.

The last years of his life were marked by activism. He joined the Italian Radical Party and later the Associazione Luca Coscioni, which named him co-president in 2006, a group with close ties to the Radical Party, that advocates euthanasia, free access to assistive technology and freedom of scientific research. Welby used the Internet as his primary mean of communication by posting on web forums and, since 2003, on his own blog.

In April 2006, a worsening of his muscular dystrophy paralyzed the finger which let him use the mouse, making him unable to use his computer and heavily limiting his communication. He decided to publicize his request to die, hoping to start a nationwide debate on euthanasia.

On 22 September 2006, Welby sent an open video-letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. It was shown on national television and made available for downloading on the Internet (see external links), describing his condition and explaining his desire to die. Napolitano answered he felt deeply touched by Welby's situation, inviting Italian politicians to a parliamentary debate on this and similar complex ethical issues.

In December 2006, anesthetist Mario Riccio contacted Radical Party member Marco Cappato, informing him that he would perform the operation, seeing no legal impediments. Doctor Riccio arrived in Rome and after ensuring Welby's request was voluntary and not dictated by external pressures, decided to grant his request.

In May 2005, on the occasion of a referendum dealing, among other topics, with the use of human embryos for stem cell research, he specifically asked his fellow Radical Party members to take him to his local polling station, after his request to let disabled people who depend on life-support machinery to vote in their homes was denied.

In April 2003 he opened a blog, expressing his views on different topics, commenting on current political events and publishing small poems. Since his death, the blog has been maintained by his widow.

On 1 May 2002 he posted a message with the title Eutanasia (Italian for euthanasia) on Radical Party's on line forum, writing: "Everything still? Worse than the desert of the Tartars. ... while staring at the horizon. ... terminal patients like me. ... envy the Dutch people. ... WAKE UP" As of January 2007, the thread received over 20,000 replies.

On 14 July 1997, Welby suffered a respiratory insufficiency that left him completely unable to breathe naturally. He depended on mechanical ventilation and artificial feeding and communicated through a speech-synthesizer.

During the 1980s, he cured his drug dependency with the help of a methadone-based therapy which, while successfully detoxifying him, accelerated the progression of the disease, irreversibly paralyzing him from his waist down. At this time, he met his future wife Mina while she was traveling to Rome with her parish.

Welby was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a teenager in the early 1960s. The disease progressed, and in 1997 he became unable to breathe on his own. He became politically active in the right-to-die movement, and in 2006 he publicly declared his wish to refuse the medical treatment that kept him alive. The case was controversial, with liberal politicians supporting him and conservatives and the Vatican speaking out against his cause. After three months, he was allowed to die, though he was denied a church burial.

During the 1960s, he became influenced by the hippie movement, extensively travelling throughout Europe from 1969 to 1971 and using drugs to help forget his disease; back in Italy, he devoted his life to poetry and painting, supporting himself by giving private lessons.

Piergiorgio Welby (26 December 1945 – 20 December 2006) was an Italian poet, painter and activist whose three-month-long battle to establish his right to die led to a debate about euthanasia in his country.