The woman, identified as Libera (not her real name), was unable to take the drug herself, so the National Council for Scientific Research (CNR) developed a unique device that could activate the lethal injection using only eye movements.
This case has again raised the question of legalizing euthanasia in a country where assisted suicide is allowed only in individual cases and there is no general national legal framework.
Libera filed a complaint and the matter reached the Constitutional Court. Two years later, the court confirmed the ban on euthanasia, but allowed the search for ways in which the patient could independently activate the drug.
To do this, the National Council for Scientific Research (CNR) developed a device that allows Libera to trigger the injection of a lethal drug with eye movements through a special infusion pump. After testing was completed, the device was handed over to the Tuscan Regional Health Service and the woman was able to use it.
In her farewell message to the Luca Coscioni association, Libera said: “This is not just my story. It is a call for dignity, which I hope one day will simply be respected.”
Doctors and anesthesiologists who attended the case note the patient’s determination and criticize the need to create a special device for self-administration of the drug. In Italy, the topic of assisted suicide is in a legal vacuum: there is no legislative framework, there is only judicial practice, including decisions of the Constitutional Court allowing access to the procedure in exceptional cases.
