Before self-administering the lethal drug at her Perugia home, journalist Laura Santi left a farewell letter containing poignant messages: “When you read these lines, I will no longer be here, because I will have decided to stop suffering”; “I depart having strongly and consciously savored the last morsels of life”; and closing with, “remember me as a woman who loved life.”
Santi described her decision as “the most total and definitive act a human being can perform,” requiring “cold blood and nerves of steel.” She implored readers to understand the “agony of pain” that led her to this point, revealing a reality starkly contrasting any cheerful social media presence: “Behind a cute photo… behind the beautiful smile you might have seen… was the backdrop of a painful, bare, ferocious daily life in continuous decline. Suffering growing day after day.”
Her condition had evolved over years, worsening dramatically in recent months and weeks. While her husband Stefano and caregivers witnessed her decline, Santi wrote that not even they could fully grasp “what I felt in my body, how much pain I felt, how increasingly all-consuming the effort was.” She described losing the ability to perform even minimal gestures and the capacity to enjoy life or social relationships – elements she defined as essential for a dignified life.
Santi emphasized having “had much time to process and mature this decision,” including opportunities to change her mind. She allowed herself, while her condition still permitted, “to savor the last scraps of life and beauty,” bidding farewell to “every corner, every place, every face, every person, every situation, every sky, every color, every tiny walk outside.”
Addressing those left behind, Santi offered apologies and “a very strong embrace,” stating it was impossible to name everyone who filled her life: “Assume that I am greeting and embracing you. My life was full also thanks to you.” She acknowledged her family, lifelong friends, colleagues, acquaintances, fellow patients, activism companions, and her “beloved” Perugia. Special thanks went to those who assisted her, including politicians she deemed “good,” journalist friends, and Bishop Ivan, “a special friend with whom I had more than one chat about life and death.”
Santi credited the Luca Coscioni Association for enabling her “battle,” urging support for them and for individual rights and freedoms, which she called “under unprecedented strain.” She condemned the “endless drivel” on end-of-life issues, the “chronic interference of the Vatican,” and “the incompetence of politics,” specifically criticizing a majority-backed bill as a “power grab that would nullify all rights.”
Her final plea was: “Demand a good law instead, one that respects the sick and their needs. Exercise your critical spirit, apply pressure, organize yourselves, don’t just stand by – take action, because one day it could concern you or your loved ones.”
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