Emma Bonino is hospitalized in intensive care at Rome's Santo Spirito Hospital but currently appears alert. Her diagnosis is respiratory failure . A radical from the start, Emma has been battling small cell lung cancer for years. This aggressive form of lung cancer was diagnosed in 2015 .

After eight years of treatment, she announced her successful conclusion in 2023. Emma is one of the few Italian women famous abroad: she has always been respected despite her "radical" positions. Her battles for abortion and drug legalization are well-known. Her "Pannellian" consistency has also been respected by right-wingers and conservatives, who have recognized her unwavering consistency.

A member of the Radical Party since 1975, she played a leading role in the campaigns for the liberalization of abortion and against nuclear power, carried out through referendum propaganda and civil disobedience. In the following years, she promoted numerous initiatives for the legalization of soft drugs and the controlled distribution of heroin. Internationally, she was committed to the defense of civil and political rights, the abolition of the death penalty, and the fight against world hunger.

A member of Parliament from 1976 to 1994, she was president of the Transnational Radical Party from 1991 to 1993, and served as its secretary from 1993 to 1994. Elected to the European Parliament in 1979 and 1984, she was re-elected in the European elections of June 1999, in which she ran on her own list, the Bonino List, obtaining 8.5% of the vote. She held the post of Member of the European Parliament until May 2006: following the center-left's victory in the general election, she was elected to the Parliament for the Rose in the Fist party and appointed Minister for International Trade and European Policies in the Prodi government. In the 2008 general elections, she ran on the Democratic Party's list and was elected to the Senate, becoming Vice President of the Senate.

Emma Bonino fought for women and the underprivileged, fasted for Africa and world hunger, and championed freedom, rights, and values. —not for African women, nor to defeat her lung cancer. In October 2024, she was hospitalized for respiratory problems. Released after a week, , her longtime friend, demonstrating her open secularism, which had won over several progressive religious circles. Her personal and political relationship with Marco Pannella was intense from the beginning, but shortly before the radical leader's death, relations cooled, and there was a painful rift between the two.