There is a big unresolved problem in the current version of the law text on assisted suicide, approved in the House and waiting to be discussed in the Senate. It is the possible “discrimination between patients”, as Mario (invented name) pointed out during the seminar organized by the Luca Coscioni association in view of the passage of the law to the Senate. He, 43, quadriplegic, is first Italian to have obtained the green light for assisting medically assisted suicide.
“You all know my story and what I have done in these 18 months to be able to obtain a right granted to me by the Constitutional Court, or the right to assisted suicide,” he writes in an open letter. “In the misfortune of my disability, I feel lucky, because I respect the same sentence I have all the necessary requirementsI am suffering from an irreversible disease, I am kept alive by vital supports, I am fully conscious and able to understand and want and finally I suffer from physical and / or psychological pain and now I will finally be able to put an end to my sufferings in my country, near to my loved ones by pressing that button, and I am organizing myself with the necessary calm for this to happen ».
And again: «I did everything because the court of Ancona proved me right, because I had the right to be subjected to a verification of my conditions, contrary to what Asur Marche claimed. A medical commission came to visit me, the Ethics Committee gave a favorable opinionand also a commission gave a positive opinion on the drug ».
But now that he is reading in the newspapers that Parliament is discussing the passing of a law on assisted suicide, Mario wants to leave his testimony, he wants to “say a few words about it”, “since this new law would include the need to ascertain the presence of pain both physical and psychic, And to undertake a path of palliative care“.
He is quadriplegic, “and therefore it is not a terminal disease but unfortunately incurable, with a constant and slow worsening that can make me live even 20, 30, 40 years, and who can tell me and force me to continue to suffer by suffering daily torture on my body . As for physical and mental pain, it is very difficult to give assessments about it, because each of us has a different pain threshold from the other: in my case I am not screaming with pain, and I am not crying for my disability, because perhaps I have a high tolerance for suffering. In fact, the report on my psychological state was very positive. Doctors and psychologists have found that I do not have psychological problems and that I am a serene person. When dealing with seriously ill patients, one must have respect and listen to their sufferings and their dignity, e no one can say: “You, for us, don’t feel too bad physically and mentally “”.
Mario has read that the law now asks the need to verify psychological suffering as well in addition to the physical ones, «and this it could exclude many sick people who are in the same condition as me from the possibility of an assisted death. Then, as far as palliative care is concerned, I think that the moment a patient presses that button, as I will, he must be in a fresh and lucid state of mind because until the end he may have second thoughts and decide not to do nothing more, in no way can you be sedated first and then be faced with pressing a buttonI wonder what lucidity a patient can have ».
According to Mario, «palliative care already exists in our country and I think it must be two different things to assisted suicide. Each of us will choose what he deems appropriate to do, and there must be no discrimination between patients. In my case, if I accepted palliative care, if I had a catheter obturation I would not notice, and this would lead to a rapid rise in blood pressure with the risk of my bladder bursting in a few minutes. I say this because unfortunately, although I no longer feel anything about my body, from shoulders to feet, in recent years I have had to learn those small painful signals that my body gave me, and know what to do immediately. Each patient even suffering from the same disease is different from the other, and reacts differently ».
«I know that the topic of the end of life is a complicated issue to deal with, and some may not like it, but if you want to make a law I think it should be done in a better way, not making things worse and complicating things»Concludes Mario. “I am writing to you only so that if my testimony can be useful, like the voice of the people who are suffering and ask to be able to put an end to their sufferings with dignity”.
Source: Vanity Fair
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