It is correct to use Thiopentone for medically assisted suicide requested by Mario, a 44-year-old quadriplegic from the Marches who has engaged in a legal battle with the Unica Regional Health Authority (Asur) for the application of the sentence of the Cappato-Dj Fabo council.
To decide the appropriateness of the drug, the local press anticipates today, a multidisciplinary commission of experts, set up by Asur, after the verification of Mario's conditions by the Marche Region Ethics Committee.
"A historic turning point", the comment of the Luca Coscioni association.
The choice of the drug and the methods of administration were the missing piece left open after the green light of the regional Ethics Committee, which had identified in the Marches quadriplegic the conditions required by the absence of the Constitutional Court.
THE BATTLE - Mario's legal battle began over 15 months ago, with the request to the Ancona Court that the Asur verify the existence of the requisites. In recent weeks Mario had also denounced the same Committee and Asur Marche for the crime of torture, as well as for the crime of omitting official acts and all other related crimes that could arise, "due to the continuous obstruction and omissions , which manifested themselves in the form of non-checks on the drug and its methods of administration ", says the Luca Coscioni association, which assisted him in the legal battle.
PRECISE RULES - "On the so-called 'suicide aid', from today in Italy we have not only precise rules, established by the Constitutional Court in the 'Cappato Sentence', but also defined medical procedures and practices that include the methods of self-administration of the drug from the patient ", declared Filomena Gallo, Mario's co-advocate and national secretary of the Luca Coscioni Association, and Marco Cappato, treasurer of the Luca Coscioni Association.
THE REFERENDUM - "The validation of the drug and of the methods of self-administration finally creates a precedent that will allow those who find themselves and will find themselves in a situation similar to that of Mario to obtain, if they ask for it, help for voluntary death without having to waiting for months and undergoing the torture of unbearable suffering against one's will ", they underline. “It would now be serious - they continue - if Parliament insisted on approving rules, such as those under discussion in the House, which restrict, rather than expand, the rules already defined by the Constitutional Court. At this point it is even more important that the referendum on the end of life can be held, which would allow for the elimination of discrimination against those who must be helped by a doctor to obtain an end to their life without suffering, a possibility now prohibited because the crime of 'murder of the consenting person' is set up ".
(Unioneonline / vl)