The Brazilian writer, composer and philosopher Antonio Cícero He died this Wednesday at the age of 79 after undergoing a euthanasia procedure in Switzerland, according to his family.
The author, recognized as “one of the most representative writers of contemporary Brazilian literature” by the Brazilian Academy of Letters, to which he belonged since 2017, decided to undergo assisted suicide -legal procedure in Switzerland since the 1940s- after suffering neurological complications related to Alzheimer’s.
In a farewell letter, released by his family, Cícero said that his “life became unbearable” and that he could no longer write or read, which was “what he liked most in the world.”
“As I have been an atheist since I was a teenager, I am aware that I am the one who decides whether my life is worth living or not. “I hope to have lived with dignity and I hope to die with dignity,” he concluded in his last text, addressed to his “dear friends.”
Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Cícero had a varied career in the arts. During the last years of his life he collaborated on musical hits, like the themes Fullgas and Pra Startcomposed by him and performed by his sister, the singer Marina Lima.
He was the author of books, philosophical essays and poems, such as Keepincluded in the anthology The hundred best Brazilian poems of the centuryorganized by Brazilian Italo Moriconi.
His last public appearance was on September 30 in a bookstore in Ipanemain Rio de Janeiro, during the presentation of a book, and then traveled to Europe, where he died.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are crimes for the Brazilian Penal Code, with sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
