"Mine will no longer be life: better get it over with before this happens." Marco Madeddu, 45, for almost two years fighting against ALS, is in Switzerland to complete what, with the advance of the disease, has become an option for him to complete: he has chosen the path of the goal life. Dramatic decision that could materialize already this morning.

Travel

He has been in Zurich since Monday, in a specialized clinic, because for months, following a bureaucratic procedure that for obvious reasons is very detailed and scrupulous, he has seen no other way out than that of assisted suicide. Marco wants to die. It hasn't been a mystery for some time. And he would have liked to do it in Italy, were it not for the fact that the referendum on euthanasia was blocked a month ago by the Council. He then planned the end of life procedure abroad even if for a long time his family and many friends (some have been with him since Monday in Zurich) even yesterday on the phone tried to dissuade him and convince him that he can still fight. But Marco, always maintaining a serene profile despite the tragic nature of the decision he has made, is no longer of this conviction for some time. So two mornings ago he boarded a plane for Zurich. "I admire those who fight - he confessed before leaving after receiving a special certificate also from Carbonia Calcio for his 300 away matches as a super biancoblù fan - but you no longer fight in the awareness of losing against a disease that does not even give you 0.1 for a hundred chance to win: I will lose my speech and my breath and the only deep regret is that I have decided to go and die in exile because in Italy politics has taken over life and death ».

The procedure

Last night in a structure adjacent to the clinic, Marco Madeddu met the doctors with whom he had been in contact for months and to whom he had sent, as per protocol, the psychic-clinical reports. It was the clinic that agreed to the procedure, also setting the date from which he moved to Switzerland accompanied by some people. But as per procedure, the doctors will also try to dissuade him this morning, trying to erode what appears to be a granite firmness. Just like his closest family and friends have been trying to do for months, in the quest to seize every little crack in which to creep in to convince him to interrupt the journey. Until a few days ago Marco Madeddu, who has not yet been tracheotomized for breathing but who already has the obvious signs of ALS, was perched on a concept: "I appeal to the possibility of choice: this is a pathology that I discovered I have a year and a half ago, but it is not possible to suffer unspeakable sufferings that damage people's dignity ”. In recent months Marco, very close to Buddhist meditation, has experienced the first consequences of the ALS: "A disease of asking why you totally lose your independence".

Andrea Scano

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