Ancona, assisted suicide. Fabio Ridolfi: “The state ignores me, to die I choose deep sedation”

ANCONA – Fabio Ridolfi, 46, from Fermignano (Pesaro), immobilized in bed for 18 years due to a tetraparesis, “has chosen to put an end to his suffering through deep and continuous sedation”. He communicated it himself, the Associazione Luca Coscioni says, through the eye pointer, in a video in which he explains: “For two months my suffering has been recognized as unbearable. I have all the conditions to be helped to die. But the state ignores me. At this point I choose deep and continuous sedation even if it prolongs the agony for those who love me “.

Deep sedation is provided for by the law on living will of 2017 It consists, when the patient able to understand and want to request it, or has left a written request in the bioassay, in the interruption of those vital supports, nutrition, hydration, ventilation and in an accompaniment to death through a progressive sedation to alleviate his sufferings. However, these exist unlike assisted sucking through which, with the intake of a lethal drug, the patient dies instantly. As happens for those who go to Switzerland and how Fabio Ridolfi asked to be allowed to die.

The man immobilized in bed for 18 years due to a tetraparesis, had warned the health company of the Marche to carry out in a very short time the necessary checks on the drug to be used in order to access medical aid for voluntary death.

Assisted suicide, Fabio Ridolfi warns the Marche health company: “They say which drug to use”

May 27, 2022

The legal action of Fabio Ridolfi followed the failure to indicate the drug and the relative methods of administration, within the medical report of the team of experts and the favorable opinion by the Ethics Committee of the Unica Sanitaria Marche, Area Vasta 1 on the existence of the foreseen conditions from the sentence of the Constitutional Court to be able to proceed with the suicide aid. The opinion, in fact, arrived in the aftermath of Ridolfi’s public appeal after being blocked for 40 days by Asur, was incomplete on the part of the drug.

“Fabio had a right, that of being able to choose medical aid for voluntary death, legally exercisable on the basis of sentence 242 of the Constitutional Court (Cappato Dj Fabio). A right – declared the lawyer Filomena Gallo, national secretary of the Luca Coscioni Association and coordinator of the defensive college of Fabio Ridolfi, and Marco Cappato, treasurer of the Association – who was denied him due to the continuous delays and obstructionism of a State which, while affirming that it has all the requirements laid down by the constitutional judgment and recognizing that his sufferings are unbearable, prevents him from saying enough. Fabio deserves respect and not to be ignored by a state that cruelly forces him to continuous suffering and does not guarantee his legally enforceable choice “.

Rooster And Cappato they remark that every day that passes for Fabio “is one more day of suffering, for this reason – they say – he has decided not to wait any longer and to proceed with deep sedation and with the suspension of life support treatments. two months he waits and the Asur continues to ignore his request, after having kept an opinion in a drawer for 40 days that affirmed the presence of the requisites to legally access assisted suicide. We cannot fail to notice – they conclude – also absolute silence of national politics, involved in the cover-up in the Senate of the text of the law on aid for suicide, after the Constitutional Court prevented the people from expressing their opinion on the referendum “.

The favorable opinion of the Ethics Committee on the existence of the conditions necessary to proceed with medical aid to voluntary death, “incomplete because it lacked the indication of the drug and the methods of administration – underlines the Association – had arrived the day after a public appeal by Fabio Ridolfi and after being blocked for 40 days by Asur Marche “.