Italy Debates the Right to Die
A debate is
currently raging in Italy as to whether a coma patient should be allowed to die
or not. Now that Prime Minister Berlusconi has become closely involved, the
question has become a constitutional one as well.
In a statement on Friday explaining why
he refused to sign an emergency government decree, Napolitano said it could
damage "the reciprocal respect between powers and organs of the
state." Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who wrote the decree, was much more
direct. "This is murder…. I'm not Pontius Pilate."
At issue is the case of Eluana Englaro, 38, who has been in a coma ever
since a car accident 17 years ago. Doctors say she will never wake up -- and
for the last decade, her father has been fighting for her right to die.
Doctors have confirmed that Englaro's
brain damage is so severe that she will never again regain consciousness or
awareness. Her father, Beppino Englaro, insists that his daughter, after
visiting a friend who was in a coma, told him that she would never want to
live, "if she couldn't be what she was." He has been fighting for the
removal of her tubes for the last 10 years in a prolonged court battle.
Berlusconi issued an emergency decree on Friday in attempt to reverse a high
court ruling allowing Englaro to die. Ever since Napolitano refused to approve
the decree, saying it defied the high court ruling, the search has been on in
Rome for a new way to keep Englaro alive.
The Berlusconi government is attempting
to speed a law through parliament which would prohibit the suspension of food
to patients who cannot feed themselves. Berlusconi has also argued that Englaro
should live because she is "in the condition to have babies" -- a
remark described as "shocking" by Italy's paper La Stampa.
Italy,
which is predominantly Roman Catholic, is divided equally on this issue, with
47 percent hoping Eluana Englaro will be allowed to die and 47 percent wanting
her kept alive, according to a recent poll. Right-to-die activists and those
against mercy killings are holding vigils and protests throughout the country.
Meanwhile,
the Vatican has voiced a clear opinion and even placed pressure on the
government. According to the London Times, Berlusconi held a frantic
telephone conversation with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary
of state, in which the cardinal told him, "we have to stop this crime
against humanity." Pope Benedict XVI also referred to Englaro over the
weekend, calling on society to defend "the absolute and supreme dignity of
every human being."
Once Englaro's feeding tubes are
removed, doctors say it will take four to five days before her condition
becomes irreversible and it could take up to two weeks for her heart to stop
beating. Yet, according to Englaro's anaesthetist, Dr. Amato De Monte,
"Eluana will not suffer because Eluana died 17 years ago."
Italy Debates the Right to Die
Currently: à l’heure actuelle
A debate is raging: un débat fait fureur/rage
A statement: une declaration
Emergency: urgence
To damage: mettre à mal
A decade: une décennie
To regain: retrouver
The removal: la suppression/le retrait
To prohibit= to ban : interdire
A poll= a survey: une enquête / un sondage
To voice: exprimer / formuler
Napolitano is the President of the Italian Republic elected in 2006
and re-elected in 2013.
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