"Life is worth living, even in the most brutal conditions and at the age of 100, if one desires it. However, it is we who experience this extreme suffering who must make the decision, not anyone else". These are the words of Laura Santi, a 50-year-old Perugian journalist who died at home after self-administering a fatal medication. She is the ninth individual in Italy to be approved for assisted suicide. "After years of disease progression and the last year of a ferocious deterioration in her condition, her suffering had become intolerable", according to a statement from the Luca Coscioni Association, an organization committed to end-of-life issues, for which she was an activist. The journalist, who suffers from a progressive and advanced type of multiple sclerosis, gained approval from her local health authority last month, two and a half years after requesting assisted suicide and going through a lengthy legal process.