Italian doctor who disconnected respirator cleared

An Italian medical board today cleared a doctor who disconnected the respirator of a paralysed man who had sought to die, in the latest development of a case that split Italy.

In December, Dr Mario Riccio assisted in the death of Piergiorgio Welby, a 60-year-old writer with muscular dystrophy who was at the centre of a right-to-die campaign in the Roman Catholic nation.