End of life, Veneto gives the green light to the request for assisted suicide of Gloria, a cancer patient

Gloria, a 78-year-old cancer patient from Veneto, has asked to be able to put an end to her suffering. AND, for the second time, the Veneto agreesto a sick person who feels the need, the “green light” to the request for access to “assisted suicide”.

The verification of the conditions and methods, after about 6 months from the start of the process, for Gloria was completed: the patient, assisted by the lawyers of the Luca Coscioni Association, had started the procedure in November 2022.

The expected requirements

The health company, through its doctors, has established that the woman possesses all the requisites foreseen by the sentence 242/19 of the Council: she autonomously and consciously decided to proceed with assisted dying, she suffers from an irreversible oncological pathology, this pathology produces suffering that she herself considers intolerable and that treatments with «targeted anticancer drugs» constitute her life support.

At the end of March 2023, the healthcare company communicated to the patient that the Ethics Committee also found the existence of the requirements set forth in the sentence. In April 2023, the type of drug suitable for proceeding and how to use it was indicated. The health company has announced that will provide the necessary equipment for self-administration of the drug lethal and that the Regional Health Service will provide everything needed immediately after the event.

“My life was beautiful and free until the end”

“I went through difficult periods with the strength and will to face them, from the beginning I was aware that a difficult period was ahead and so it went, and this is the reason for my request for a dignified end of life,” explains Gloria. «I had a free, beautiful life: when I decide to proceed with assisted suicide to end my suffering, despite everything, the last word for me will be: “Life is good”. And I was free until the end.”

The previous cases

Federico Carboni, almost a year ago, in the Marche region, he was the first Italian to have access to medically assisted suicide in Italy, but he had had to buy the machine himself (which was then bought with a fund raised by the Luca Coscioni Association). Gloria is the second Venetian, after Stefano Gheller, affected by muscular dystrophy, to have obtained the verification of the conditions to be able to access assisted suicide and the related favorable opinion from the health company and the ethics committee. In Italy, as far as we know about it, this is the fourth time it has happened.

«After the obstructions recorded in the Marches, Umbria and Friuli Venezia Giulia the Region Veneto stands out for the correct application of the sentence of the Constitutional Court on the Cappato case, which makes assisting suicide unpunishable under certain conditions», says Filomena Gallo, secretary of the Luca Coscioni Association for the freedom of scientific research and defender and coordinator of Gloria’s legal defense team. «Today Gloria knows that she will also be able to proceed at home, that the company will supply the drug and everything necessary, except for the medical personnel who are currently unavailable. Gloria will make use of her doctor. Veneto is also the first Region of Italy to have reached the threshold of signatures necessary for the regional law proposal “Liberi Subito” so that the response times of the healthcare companies to the person do not exceed 20 days. We invite the other Regions to follow the example».