Federico Carboni, until now known under the pseudonym of “Mario” to preserve his privacy, died at the age of 44.
The first patient who had access to medically assisted suicide in Italy died this morning, legalized by a sentence of the Constitutional Court, as announced by the Luca Coscioni association that militates for the legalization of the practice.
Federico Carboniso far known under the pseudonym “Mario” to preserve his privacy, he died this morning at 11.05 (6.05 Argentina time), after having injected a lethal drug at home through a special apparatus, which has a cost of about 5,000 euros and for which the Luca Coscioni association had raised funds, the organization reported through a press release.
In the absence of a law, the Italian State did not bear the costs of assisting assisted suicide and dispensing of the drug, despite the technique being permitted by the Constitutional Court.
The man was a truck driver until an accident left him bedridden.
The assisted suicide procedure was performed under medical supervision. and the accompaniment of his family, friends and lawyers of the association, as reported.
The approval of the practice had arrived on February 9, with the opinion on drugs and the “execution” methods, almost two years after the first request and after a long judicial battle, in which he had the assistance of the Luca association Coscioni.
Carboni, 44 years oldworked as a truck driver until in 2010 he had an accident that left him quadriplegic and led him to ask the health authorities of his region, the Marche, in the center of the country, for authorization to resort to assisted suicide.
Currently, Italian law punishes suicide aid with a prison sentence of between 5 and 12 years.
“Mario” died this Thursday at the age of 44.
However, in 2019, the Constitutional Court, the highest instance in Italy, introduced an exception for “patients kept alive with treatment […] and with an irreversible pathology, a source of physical and psychological suffering that they consider intolerable, although they are fully capable of making free and informed decisions “, according to the AFP news agency.
Federico Carboni met all these criteria and in his last words he assured: “I do not deny that I regret having said goodbye to life, it would be false and a liar if I said the opposite because life is fantastic and we only have one. But unfortunately it is so it was. “
“I did everything possible to be able to live better and try to recover as much as possible from my disability, but now I am mentally and physically exhausted. I do not have a minimum of autonomy in daily life, I am at the mercy of events, I depend on others for everything, they are like a ship adrift in the ocean, “said the man quoted in a statement from the association.
“Now I am finally free to fly wherever I want,” he said in his last words.
“I am aware of my physical condition and my prospects, so I am totally calm and peaceful about what I will do”, he added and concluded: “Now I’m finally free to fly wherever I want.”
In the meantime, the association has spread a message of thanks to Federico “for the trust he has given us in these two years, as he has preferred to give up the possibility of going to die in Switzerland and has chosen to assert his rights in Italy”.
“His stubbornness not only allowed him to get what he wanted, but also paved the way for those who will be in the same condition from now on,” they said.
“We will continue to help those who ask us. At this point a law would no longer be necessary ”, they concluded.
Source: Clarin
