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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (455099)	2/8/2009 7:28:24 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575426

No lie. Just the facts.

To: combjelly who wrote (455099)	2/9/2009 7:16:23 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1575426

Its T. Schiavo all over again....Italian style. And one again the conservatives and the Church have tried to keep them from pulling the plug. 'Right to die' coma woman Eluana Englaro dies Eluana Englaro was in a coma for 17 years Richard Owen, Rome Eluana Englaro, the comatose woman at the centre of a euthanasia debate that has divided Italy and sparked a constitutional crisis, died tonight at the age of 38, four days after doctors began removing her life support. “May the Lord forgive them,” a senior Vatican official said. The news of Ms Englaro’s death came as the Upper House of parliament began debating emergency legislation rushed out by the centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi. It would have ordered medical staff to restore all nutrients. She had been in a vegetative state for 17 years after a car accident. Ms Englaro's father, Beppino Englaro, had been fighting for a decade for a dignified end to his daughter’s life, in accordance with what he and her friends have testified were her own wishes. At his request, doctors at a clinic in Udine stopped feeding Ms Englaro on Friday. “Yes, he she has left us,” Mr Englaro announced tonight. The Senate interrupted the debate and observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect. Mr Berlusconi’s law would make it illegal for carers of people “unable to take care of themselves'” to suspend artificial feeding. Euthanasia is illegal in Italy but refusing treatment is not. Mr Berlusconi drew up the Bill after President Napolitano refused to sign an emergency decree on consti- tutional grounds. Mr Napolitano said that the decree contradicted a Supreme Court ruling last November that gave Ms Englaro’s father permission to find doctors who would end her life. The Vatican and Catholic Church had opposed the ruling fiercely, and were swift to respond to news of Ms Englaro’s death. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, the Vatican Health Minister, said: “I will continue to regard her death as a crime.” He hoped those who helped her to die would seek forgiveness, he said. Mr Berlusconi expressed “deep pain and regret” that he had failed to save Ms Englaro's life. Earlier Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian Episcopal Conference, declared that refusing food and water to Ms Englaro was murder. “A light is going out, the light of a life,” he said. Pope Benedict XVI had asked the faithful to pray “for those who are gravely ill but cannot in any way provide for themselves and are totally dependent on the care of others”. He did not refer directly to Ms Englaro but reaffirmed “the absolute and supreme dignity of every human being”. For the third day in succession, the Pope referred indirectly to the case, telling the new Brazilian Ambassador to the Vatican today that “the sanctity of life must be safeguarded from conception to its natural end”. The tussle over Ms Englaro’s life has revived accusations that the Vatican is dictating Italian politics. Mr Berlusconi, who had previously stayed out of the controversy, reportedly reacted after Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, implored him to “stop this crime against humanity”. In response to accusations that he was bowing to pressure from the Vatican, the Prime Minister said that he represented the feelings of most Italians. Opinion polls, however, suggest that Italians were divided, with 47 per cent in favour of Ms Englaro’s right to die, 47 per cent against, and 6 per cent undecided. Ms Englaro’s longtime neurologist, Carlo Alberto Defanti, predicted last week that his patient could remain alive another eight to ten days. “During the first week without food and water, Eluana won’t run a big risk,” Dr Defanti said in an interview published today. “Her physical condition is excellent. Probably . . . she will resist for longer than average. “Apart from her brain injuries, Eluana is a healthy woman. She has never been ill and never took antibiotics.” Dr Defanti admitted tonight that Ms Englaro’s death had come more swiftly than expected. “It was something we did not foresee,” he said. The news of Ms Englaro’s death was given first to her father by Amato De Monte, the anaesthetist at the Udine clinic. Ms Englaro was called “Italy’s Terri Schiavo”. in reference to the American woman in a vegetative state who was allowed to die in 2005 after a long legal fight. Mr Englaro battled his way through Italy’s courts for ten years to have her feeding tube disconnected, saying that it was her wish not to be kept alive artificially. Hours before Ms Englaro’s death, regional health inspectors completed a survey of the La Quiete clinic in Udine after Maurizio Sacconi, the Health Minister, said that it was a home for the aged and not legally equipped to help Ms Englaro. timesonline.co.uk