His appeal is contained in a letter sent to the USL 7 Pedemontana: "I ask that the procedure for legal access to medically assisted suicide be activated urgently". The request is that of 49-year-old Stefano Gheller, who lives in Cassola, in the Vicenza area, and has been suffering from a severe form of muscular dystrophy since birth. Like Federico "Mario" Carboni (who got the green light from the ethics committee of the health authority of the Marche), he would like to have access to the "sweet death".
"From a legal point of view, the case of Federico Carboni has shown that, where the conditions established by the Constitutional Court are verified, assisted suicide is practicable in Italy - says Marco Cappato of the Coscioni association - We are confident that the verification process can take place in appropriate times ".
But the 49-year-old hasn't yet decided when the time will be right to let go. "I don't want to die right now - he says - but I want to have the right to do so as soon as I feel that the time has come".
" I have lived in a wheelchair since I was 15, I am attached to a respirator 24 hours a day - he explains - When I wake up in the morning I know that I could die of suffocating from food or a sip of water". Then he admits: "A few years ago I decided to go to Switzerland, where euthanasia is already regulated. But I thought that I could make sense of my death if I had stayed here, to fight with the Luca Coscioni association so that even in Italy, medically assisted suicide can be practiced ".
But there are many who are trying to make him change his mind, like the bishop of Vicenza, Beniamino Pizziol: “He asked me how I was and if I was convinced of my choice, I answered yes; then he asked me if I would like a visit from him and so in a few days he will come to see me - he confides - He knew that in August I wanted to go on vacation to Bibione and so he even offered to pay for my stay ". Gheller would like all people were like his bishop. "He does not judge - he concludes - he made me feel understood".
(Unioneonline / ss)