End of life: Italy authorizes first assisted suicide

Since 2019, the Italian Constitutional Court decriminalizes assisted suicide.

© AFP - FILIPPO MONTEFORTE

Text by: RFI Follow

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A 43-year-old man, nicknamed Mario, quadriplegic and bedridden for 11 years because of a road accident, will be able to end his life accompanied by a care team. 

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With our correspondent in Rome,

This is a first in a country still deeply influenced by the Catholic Church.

Mario finally obtained the opinion of the Ethics Committee of the health authorities of the Marche region, in central Italy.

It took him fourteen months of legal battle and the support of Coscioni.

This radical association militates in favor of the legalization of assisted suicide, to argue for a sentence of the Constitutional Court which decriminalizes, under certain conditions, assistance in dying since 2019. A practice that has so far been condemned by a sentence of 5 to 12 years in prison 

Following checks of his health conditions by medical specialists, the Ethics Committee confirmed that Mario will be able to access medically assisted suicide.

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"Historical page of freedom of choice"

This 43-year-old former truck driver suffers from an irreversible pathology, a source of intolerable suffering, and he is able to make decisions with full conscience.

In other words, his condition allows him to end his life, according to the sentence of the Constitutional Court. 

For the Coscioni association, " 

 ".

For her part, the pioneer of secular battles, Emma Bonino, denounces the paralysis of Parliament and of the major parties on bills aimed at framing the right to die.

As for the Vatican, it issued a press release from the Pontifical Academy for Life which worriedly questions “ 

 ”.

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