‘Trascolorare' by Daniele Pieroni

After Tuscany established procedures for medical assistance in dying through bill n. 16, aka ‘Liberi Subito’ (Free Now), the 64-year-old poet Daniele Pieroni became the first Tuscan resident to benefit from the regional law: on 17 May 2025, Pieroni died by a legal assisted suicide. When Pieroni’s death was announced, his poem ‘Trascolorare’ gained widespread circulation through news and social media, with critics calling it ‘the essence of his writings’ and ‘the testament of Piero’ (translated from Italian, as all other quotes). Though some assumed it to be a goodbye letter, ‘Trascolorare’ had been online since 2021, when it was included in the jury’s commendation for the prestigious Montale Fuori di Casa prize, awarded to Pieroni that year (the piece was likely unpublished before the prize and submitted by the author as part of his dossier for the award). ‘Trascolorare’ is not overtly political, nor does it mention ‘euthanasia’ or ‘assisted suicide’; instead, it displays a spiritual and fearless approach to death. Even if not explicitly cited in legal proceedings, ‘Trascolorare’ seems to have struck a nerve with the public, gaining layers of meaning as a symbol of the right-to-die. It became one of the most visible texts by Pieroni, synonymous with his name, which, in turn, is cited by lawmakers and interest groups – both for and against assisted dying.

Framed as a prose poem, without rhymes or the line breaks typical of verse, ‘Trascolorare’ seems to naturalize death through a deceptively simple form: five short paragraphs of no more than two sentences each. Although untitled, the piece is known by its first word, borrowed from an Italian verb that corresponds to ‘transcolour’, an obsolete word in English; in Italian, ‘Trascolorare’ means to change colours or to fade – and Pieroni defines it as ‘the distinctive verb of human life’. The poem reads as a parable of a soul that changes colours as it enters death. The often-quoted second paragraph opens with ‘Death does not frighten the soul because it does not separate it from the long breath of the world’. Later in the poem, Pieroni depicts dying as the moment when ‘the soul crosses the final threshold, beyond which there is a triumph that does not require chosen forms, nor does it care about style’. This carelessness regarding style, coming from a poet so attuned to the intricacies of poetry, resonates with the perceived simplicity of the text. Direct in form and content, spiritual but not affiliated with any specific religion, ‘Trascolorare’ was shared and reshared as a meditation on the naturalness of death.

Born in the Abruzzo region in 1961, Pieroni moved to Rome (Lazio region) when he was ten, travelling widely but using the Italian capital as home base for decades before relocating to Tuscany, where he would spend his final years. After Italy’s Constitutional Court decriminalized assisted suicide in 2019 (Sentence n. 242/19, aka ‘Cappato–Antoniani’), only Tuscany and Sardinia – out of Italy’s 20 administrative regions – have regulated the procedure, with Tuscany leading the way in February 2025. According to Tuscany’s governor Eugenio Giani, the regional law ‘temporarily filled a void’, because the Italian Parliament is yet to regulate assisted dying at the national level. Since 2008, Pieroni had struggled with symptoms from Parkinson’s, from having to stop playing the cello to developing a severe dysphagia, which led to his needing a feeding tube for 21h a day. On 31 August 2023, advised by the advocacy group Associazione Luca Coscioni, Pieroni filed a formal request for an assisted death with the local health authority, ASL Toscana Sud Est. Even though his condition fulfilled the four criteria required by Sentence 242/19 (irreversible pathology, intolerable suffering, dependence on life support systems, and lucidity), any such requests faced bureaucratic and legal hurdles in the absence of national guidelines. The passing of Tuscany’s regional law suddenly fast-tracked Pieroni’s request, which was verified and approved by 22 April 2025. A few days later, on May 9th, the Meloni government challenged the Tuscan law, but the Constitutional Court let the regional regulation stand pending their ruling; this allowed Pieroni to receive a medically assisted death by self-administering a lethal drug at home, in the presence of a forensic doctor, among other volunteer carers, friends, and family members. Since Pieroni’s death, the Court has partially upheld the Tuscan law (Sentence n. 204/25), while the Coscioni Association has advocated for more regional laws, often invoking Pieroni’s case, which has been cited by lawmakers from several regions. The Catholic church has vehemently opposed such expansion, maintaining that the healthcare system should focus on palliative care as the only moral response to suffering at the end of life.