“The Accabadora in Sardinia”
Until a few decades ago, euthanasia was practiced in Sardinia, a large island in Italy.
It was the task of "sa femmina accabadora" (the accabadora woman), to bring death to people in agony. The term "accabadora" comes from the Spanish "acabar" which means to end.
The medal is a perfect art form that expresses the duality of things, in this case birth and death are part of the same circle of life.
Accabadora was a woman who, called by the relatives of the terminally ill patient, killed him and put an end to his suffering. A pitiful act towards the dying man but also an act necessary for the survival of relatives, especially for the less well-off social classes: in small countries far from a doctor many days on horseback, it served to avoid long and atrocious sufferings to the patient.
The accabadora always came to the dying man's house at night and, after having let the family members who had called her out, entered the death room: the door opened and the dying man, from his bed of agony, saw her enter dressed black, his face covered, and he understood that his suffering was about to end. The patient was either suppressed with a pillow, or the woman dealt the blow of "su mazzolu", a wooden hammer, causing death.
Her existence has always been considered a natural fact, as there was the midwife who helped to be born, there was the accabadora that helped die. It is even said that he was often the same person and that his job was distinguished from the color of the suit (black if it brought death, white or light if it was to give birth to a life). This figure, expression of a socio-cultural and historical phenomenon, is the practice of euthanasia and in the small rural villages of Sardinia and is linked to the relationship that the Sardinians had with death, considered as the conclusion of the natural cycle of life.
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