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ITALY: UMBERTO VERONESI, SCIENTIST, WHO SUPPORTED THE ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY AND LIFE SENTENCE, DIED
November 8, 2016: Umberto Veronesi, a scientist who in his life has always fought for both the abolition of the death penalty and of the life sentence, died today at the age of 90.
He founded the “Science for Peace” movement to give voice to the science against all forms of violence, ranging from the death penalty to the life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (ergastolo ostativo in the Italian penal code), which he considered "a civil death penalty". "A person who enters the cell knowing he is intended to die there, is condemned to a slow and cruel agony," Veronesi always said.
Veronesi has also provided a sound scientific basis to its campaign against the death penalty and the sentence until death, which he summarized as follows: "First of all, our system of neurons is not fixed, but is renewed because the brain has stem cells able to generate new cells. So the person we once locked up in a prison, is not the same twenty years later. For every man there is the possibility to change and evolve. Secondly, the studies on DNA show that violence is not a biological imperative. Instead, the message of our genetic code is the perpetuation of the species, a natural predisposition to solidarity.
There are also many studies supporting the hypothesis on the environmental origin of violence: those who act aggressively has been exposed to unfavorable external factors that led to violent acts."
Hands Off Cain remembers him with great affection and gratitude. (Sources: HOC, 08/11/2016)
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