Posted on 11/17/2008 12:26:00 PM PST by NYer
MILAN, November 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The nuns who run the hospice in which Eluana Englaro has been living for 14 years have refused to carry out the court order to remove her food and hydration tube. On Friday, the highest court of appeals of Italy upheld a previous court’s ruling that Eluana Englaro, the young disabled woman who has been in a state of diminished consciousness since being in a car accident in 1992, may be killed by the removal of her food and hydration tube.
In a letter published in yesterday’s Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference, the Misericordine nuns of Lecco said, “Our hope, and that of many like us, is that the death by hunger and thirst of Eluana, and others in her condition, will not be carried out.”
“That is why, once again, we maintain our availability, today and into the future, to continue to serve Eluana. If there are those who consider her dead, let Eluana remain with us who feel she is alive. We don’t ask anything but the silence and the liberty to love and to devote ourselves to those who are weak, poor and little in return.”
At the same time, the Secretary of Welfare, Eugenia Roccella, said in a statement today that there is “no obligation” for government-funded health care facilities to implement the decision of the Court of Cassation that patients can be dehydrated to death.
Legal experts have said that it is possible under Italian law for the sisters to apply for permission from the courts to be appointed Eluana’s legal guardian. Monsignore Ignacio Barreiro, the head of the Rome office of Human Life International told LifeSiteNews.com that such a possibility could be a real glimmer of hope for saving Eluana’s life.
“It’s more than reasonable,” he said, “that someone who wants to keep the person alive should be appointed the guardian, rather than the person who’s ready to kill her. You don’t have to have a doctorate in theology to say that; it’s just common sense.”
Msgr. Barriero, who was an attorney before being ordained to the priesthood, added that it is a basic principle of law that “you cannot have a conflict of interest between the guardian and the person who is under guardianship. The purpose of a guardian is to look after the well being of the person.”
550 delegates of the Movement for Life, meeting in Montecatini for the 28th National Congress of the Centers for Aid to Life, have written to President Giorgio Napolitano to ask him to “enforce his highest moral authority” to allow Eluana Englaro “to continue to be cared for and loved by the Sisters of Lecco.”
Giulio Boscagli, Assessor to the Family and Solidarity in the region of Lombardy in which Eluana lives, agreed with the nuns, saying, “The ruling of the Court of Cassation seems to have lost sight of the reality” that Eluana is not dead but alive, although currently in a “seriously disabled condition.”
The desire of the nuns to care for Eluana as though she is “a daughter,” he said, “is the right path, the path taken by all those who daily take care of people who are in a vegetative state or very seriously disabled.” Boscagli pledged the “closeness and support” of the Regione Lombardia for the nuns.
At the same time, the decision of the Court of Cassation has alerted lawmakers to a legal loophole that could be used to sanction euthanasia. Justice Minister Angelino Alfano said that parliament must “fill the legislative vacuum in place” that has allowed the court to rule against Eluana.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Eluana Englaro to Die by Dehydration after Italian High Court Ruling
Ping!
Amen!
Unfortunately, her father will probably move her to a facility that will carry out the execution order.
I will ping my other lists later.
God Bless the Misericordine nuns of Lecco and Eluana.
That's probably why the father is NOT going to move the daughter.
Why do you say that, it will be far easier for him to murder her someplace else.
Jeb Bush did everything he could legally do. The reason the bill didn’t pass was because of the odious (GOP) state senator, Jim King.
Incidentally, Bush did better than Terri’s own bishop, the horrible Bishop Lynch of St. Pete’s. He forbade his diocesan clergy to even visit her, he did nothing to support her, he did not get Communion to her, and then he went out of the country during the final uncomfortable week that she was dehydrated to death. This was despite the fact that a bishop is never supposed to be away from his diocese at Easter. If Bishop Lynch had stood up and tried to protect her, Bush would have gotten more support from the legislators (I don’t think King is a Catholic, but some of the others are) and that horrible thing would never have happened. So put the blame where it’s due: Bishop Lynch. With virtually no support, and no support even from the Church, Jeb Bush did everything he could.
You’ll be happy to know that Bp Lynch is doing just fine and was recently busy trying to keep the bishops from making any negative remarks about Obama.
The people who would want satisfaction would probably not be willing to hire those who could provide extrajuridical earthly justice. I’d think they would prefer to wait for God’s.
Could be, but we are talking about Italy, not New Jersey.
So you’re saying that Lynch is a potential paving stone?
What, the real Italians would do it for free? Or in the spirit of the Crusades?
“Deus vult!”
God bless them for their courage and faithfulness!
As governor Jeb Bush could have personally taken custody of Terri or he could have turned her over to Congressional authorities to comply with her subpoena.
God bless the sisters! Thank you, Misericordine sisters.
I respectfully call Bull$hit! is as much a Catholic as his brother George is a Conservative.
Jeb Bush clearly spelled out in his Amicus Curiae Memorandum how and why he could intervene and then did nothing. The governor stressed that in Florida law even incapacitated people such as Terri retain specific rights that may not be denied or ignored either by the court or guardian. These are set forth in Florida Statutes Section 744.3215. One is a retained right to receive necessary services and rehabilitation. "While many rights may be delegated to a guardian , the right to receive necessary services and rehabilitation may not," says Bush."
It is clear that he placed his political career ahead of his principles and decided that Terri Schaivo's life was not worth an Andrew Jackson-like fight with the State courts.
Terri S. was already dead. She had no brain. her entire brain, the part that is your consciousness, your very being, was liquid surrounded by a brain sack, which was poured into a beaker during her autopsy. But don't let simple facts get in the way. Just because brain stem function can keep the heart beating, does not mean she's alive and her "conscious being" hadn't departed. There is no higher function, "grey matter" in the brain stem, that region controls auto function only. It is like a finger, is a part of the vessel, not part of the consciousness the very essence of being. Her body was simply an empty vessel, kept alive artificially.
This case may be entirely different. Each case has to be considered individually.
Technically, every vessel can be kept alive artificially, and that is often done in hopes of saving lives, until time which allows closer examination to prove that the person has departed the vessel. Once the part of the brain which contains your consciousness, your very awareness of being, is dead, you are departed. But if it isn't, then there is hope, and hope that the links to control the vessel can be repaired. In terry's case, her entire brain reverted to liquid.
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