Truck driver is first assisted suicide in Italy after legal win

THE first assisted suicide has been carried out in Italy, ending a two-year legal battle by a quadraplegic who accused health authorities of “torture” for denying him the procedure.

Federico Carboni, 44, died in the eastern Marche region on Thursday.

He was publicly known only as “Mario”, a pseudonym that protected his privacy. The truck driver was paralysed by a road accident in 2010.

Mr Carboni said he was “sorry to leave life”, saying he had “done everything possible” to survive, but he was “mentally and physically exhausted”.

“I don’t have any autonomy in my daily life, I am at the mercy of events, I depend on others for everything,” he said, adding he was “proud” at having fought for the right to a lethal injection.

Mr Carboni wanted to go to Switzerland, but filed for an assisted suicide in Italy in 2020, after the Constitutional Court legalised the procedure.