Goodbye letter by Antonio Cicero

On October 23, 2024, the Brazilian poet and philosopher Antonio Cicero, then 79 years old, received a medically assisted death in Zurich, Switzerland, where the procedure is legal. A member of the prestigious Brazilian Academy of Letters, he had the resources to travel to the European country for that express purpose and to secure the help of the Swiss nonprofit Dignitas, as assisted death remains illegal in Brazil. Cicero’s life partner of four decades, the costume designer Marcelo Pires, was present during Cicero’s assisted death. Cicero left a brief goodbye letter addressed to his friends, which Pires shared with the Brazilian media, and the text was widely reproduced following Cicero’s passing. In his goodbye letter, Cicero explains that he is in Switzerland about to undergo ‘euthanasia’, because his suffering from Alzheimer’s has become unbearable (as Moraes notes in a close reading, Cicero uses ‘euthanasia’ to mean ‘assisted death’, while doctors tend to distinguish between the two terms based on who carries out the process – assisted dying being conducted by the patient or someone else, thus comprising both assisted suicide and euthanasia). Cicero points out that, save for a few intimate friends, he can no longer recognize acquaintances or remember things that happened the day before. Moreover, he is not able to write poems and essays, nor is he able to focus on reading, which is the thing he loves the most. Despite all that, Cicero adds, he is still lucid enough to recognize his terrible predicament, hoping to die with dignity, just as he has lived. Stating that he has been an atheist since his adolescence, Cicero affirms himself to be the one to decide if his life is still worth it or not.

Cicero’s goodbye letter seems to have struck a nerve with Brazilian society, revealing the need to discuss the ethics and legality of self-determination in death in Brazil. It is perhaps strange to think of ‘reviews’ of an assisted-suicide letter, but some media sources have gone beyond reproducing it to perform a close reading of the text. In one such analysis, Dantas notes that the mere fact that the letter has been widely divulged is unusual, as the World Health Organization urges media professionals not to publish suicide notes – although there is no clarity regarding goodbye letters in the case of assisted suicide. Other examples of the letter’s resonance are the homages to Cicero made by the Brazilian Union of Composers and the Brazilian Academy of Letters, organizations that are generally apolitical but that mention Cicero’s assisted suicide with open-mindedness and compassion. According to the Penal Code articles 121 and 122, both euthanasia and assisted suicide remain classified as crimes in Brazil: the former is considered a homicide; and the latter a crime against life, punishable with a period of 2-6 years of prison (halved if unsuccessful, doubled if aggravated by selfish motives or if involving a minor). However, in 2006, the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine passed Resolution 1.805, authorizing orthothanasia for terminally ill patients if they requested the suspension of procedures that would artificially prolong life. In 2007, that resolution was blocked by a federal judge, as ordered by the Federal Public Ministry. In 2010, the Ministry would change its opinion and revoke the suspension (so the 2006 orthothanasia resolution now stands); but, in 2007, the Ministry’s position caused public debates, in which Antonio Cicero weighed in. Writing about euthanasia for the Folha de S.Paulo, he noted that it is regrettable that proponents of euthanasia are sometimes accused of being part of a ‘culture of death’, because, according to Cicero, a dying person should have the right to shorten their death if it is excessively painful; thus, Cicero, argues, it would be more correct to say that those who belong to the ‘culture of death’ are those who prefer to impose a longer, bigger, heavier death on everyone. Meanwhile, critics of euthanasia in Brazil emphasize that a revitalized ‘culture of death’ need not lead to assisted death, but could be refocused on assuaging patients’ suffering.