For the first time a person has committed assisted suicide in Lombardy after a 50-year-old woman who had suffered from progressive multiple sclerosis for more than 30 years died in her home in the northern region following the self-administration of a lethal drug provided by the National Health Service, the right-to-die Luca Coscioni Association said Friday.

It is the sixth case in Italy.

The Luca Coscioni Association said the local health authority provided the drug and the necessary equipment for the procedure nine months after it was requested, amid reluctance from the regional government to give the green light.

“The Lombardy Region provided the medical aid for voluntary death because it was its duty to do so,” said Filomena Gallo and Marco Cappato, respectively the national secretary and treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Association.

“This confirms what we had also said when regional council irresponsibly declared itself incompetent in the matter”.

Tuscany on Tuesday became the first Italian region to approve a law granting access to assisted suicide amid a legislative vacuum at the national level.

In 2009 the Constitutional Court said assisted suicide is permissible in Italy in some circumstances in its ‘Cappato ruling’, named after Marco Cappato.

The requirements outlined in the 2019 sentence included the presence of an irreversible pathology, unbearable physical or psychological suffering and the patient’s reliance on treatments of vital support, among others.

The court also called on parliament to pass legislation dealing with end-of-life issues, something that it has failed to do so far.

The parties on the right of Italy’s political spectrum are opposed to moves to make assisted suicide easier.

Olimpia Tarzia, the national head of the Bioethics and Human Rights department of the centre-right Forza Italia, said Friday that a national law on this issue “is not needed”.