Italy practices assisted suicide for the first time in the country

by time news

Italia has practiced this Thursday his first assisted suicide a 44-year-old man who had been paralyzed for 12 years after suffering a car accident, after obtaining authorization from the Italian Constitutional Court last November.

‘Mario’ –the pseudonym of the quadriplegic that the Italian media uses to refer to the case– died this Thursday morning at his home after administering a lethal injection, thus becoming the first Italian to gain access to the assisted suicide in the country, as reported by the Luca Coscioni Association, an organization that defends the legalization of euthanasia.

The medically assisted suicide procedure has been carried out under the medical supervision of Dr. Mario Riccio, although It was ‘Mario’ himself who pressed with the only finger he could move an infusion pump, injected the deadly drug into his arteries.

“I do not deny that I am sorry to say goodbye to life, it would be false and a liar if I said otherwise because life is fantastic and we only have one. But unfortunately it was like that. I have done everything possible to be able to live as well as possible and try to recover as much as possible. of my disability, but now I am mentally and physically exhausted”, ‘Mario’ himself has detailed in a letter that he shared before his death and that the Luca Coscioni Association has made known. “I do not have a minimum of autonomy in daily life, I am at the mercy of events, I depend on others for everything, I am like a ship adrift in the ocean. (…) With the Luca Coscioni Association we defended ourselves by attacking and we attack defending ourselves, we have made jurisprudence and a piece of history in our country and I feel proud and honored to have been by his side. Now I’m finally free to fly wherever I want“, has added.

Until now in Italy, people who wanted to die with assisted suicide had to go to Switzerland, where it is allowed. In addition, the Vatican and right-wing parties have been staunchly opposed to any kind of euthanasia legislation in recent decades. But despite this kind of pressure, in 2021, 1.2 million Italians signed a petition to force a referendum in favor of euthanasiaalthough in the end it was not carried out because the Italian Constitutional Court declared that it was the Lower House that should present a law of this type.

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