The second ever case of assisted suicide in Italy was carried out on Sunday.

The procedure followed upon the Constitutional Court’s 2019 ‘Cappato ruling’ making assisted suicide permissible in certain circumstances. It has however never been legislated for.

The 78-year-old woman of the Veneto region had terminal cancer.

While she was the second such case in Italy, she was the first to have had the drugs and equipment delivered to her directly by the local health authority.

The practice became possible after Veneto’s regional health authority and ethics committee in June approved her request for assisted suicide under the terms of the 2019 ruling.

Previously, three other Italian regions, Marche, Umbria and Friuli Venezia Giulia, turned down similar requests by terminally ill patients wishing to end their lives.