Eluana Transferred Late Tuesday Night to Clinic for Death by Dehydration

LifeSiteNews ^ | 2/3/09 | Hilary White

[wagglebee]

ROME, February 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Eluana Englaro, who is often referred to as “Italy’s Terri Schiavo,” was transferred late Tuesday night to a hospital that has agreed to participate in her killing by removal of her food and hydration tube. Television news coverage showed a group of pro-life activists gathered outside the clinic in Eluana’s home town of Lecco at about 1:30am, as an ambulance took her away, some shouting “Eluana, wake up!” and “Don’t kill her!”

Eluana Englaro, 38, suffered brain damage in a car accident in 1992 and has since been in a state of diminished consciousness. Eluana’s father, Beppino Englaro, who has been petitioning the courts for over a decade to euthanize his daughter, said her transfer to the new facility is “the first step... towards the liberation of my daughter. It seems we have finally succeeded.”

Beppino Englaro’s lawyer told media that La Quiete, a private clinic in the north eastern town of Undine, had agree to participate in her killing. Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi said the government is searching for a new way to prevent her death. The removal of Eluana’s food and hydration tube is set to be carried out in three days.

Death by dehydration has been described by medical authorities as “horrible” and “agonizing.” It was a common form of torture used by totalitarian states, including in well-documented cases by the Nazis in their death camps.

In cases of severe dehydration, toxins build up in the body and the body's chemical balances are disrupted. This disrupts the electrical system that triggers the action of muscles, including the heart. The tongue and lips crack and bleed. The eyes recede into their orbits. The skin becomes so sensitive it peels off upon firm contact. The lining of the nose can crack and bleed. Dried brain cells can cause convulsions. The mouth becomes dry and saliva thick, and there is cracking of the mucous membranes of the mouth and lips. The blood thickens, increasing the risk of stroke. As fluid decreases in the body, blood pressure drops and the heart rate increases, possibly causing shock and heart attack.

The move to kill Eluana has roused the ire of many in Italy, including Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, said on Tuesday, “Stop this murder!”

“To stop giving food and liquids to Eluana is equivalent to abominable murder and the Church will not cease to proclaim this loud and clear.” Interviewed by the Rome daily La Repubblica, the cardinal said that Eluana’s court-mandated death by dehydration “will represent a defeat for the respect of human life.” His comments come after Pope Benedict XVI spoke on Sunday against euthanasia, saying it is a false answer to suffering.

The consequences, both legal and moral, should Eluana Englaro be euthanized in a Catholic Country, will be dire, pro-life advocates have warned. Carlo Caffara, the archbishop of Bologna, said at Mass last weekend, “In the body of this woman, and in her fate, there is an image of the fate of the West.”

Eluana has become a “‘sign of contradiction’ between a culture of death and a culture of life,” he said. “Her martyred body has become the question addressed to every conscience that reflects on man's destiny: To whom does man belong? Who has dominion over man's life and death? Who owns man?”

“The spiritual event of the West has come to the end of the line: If the life of man does not belong to man but to God, no one has control over it for any reason, [but] if the life of man belongs to man, it is consistent to hypothesize circumstances in which everyone can do what he wants with his life or ask others to put an end to it,” Cardinal Caffara continued.

The killing of Eluana, said Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, the director of the Rome office of Human Life International, is going to be disastrous for others in similar situations in Italy. Msgr. Barreiro said, “It would create a precedent whereby judges, against the law, can decide it's right to kill patients. We are not fighting for Eluana's life because she has limited signs of consciousness but because of her dignity as a human being.”

Pro-life legal experts have been especially concerned that should Eluana be “legally” killed by dehydration, it would create a “back door” through which euthanasia could be legalized. The government is considering legislation that would allow the creation of “living wills” that could specify the removal of food and hydration.

In November, health and welfare minister, Maurizio Sacconi, issued a statement that in Italy it is “illegal” to remove the food and hydration of helpless disabled patients with the purpose of ending their lives. Secretary of Welfare, Eugenia Roccella, also said that there is “no obligation” for government-funded health care facilities to implement the court’s decision that patients can be dehydrated to death.

In January, two pro-life advocates launched a legal challenge to the appeals court in Milan, arguing that the decision to allow Eluana’s killing had been made without sufficient medical examination to determine her condition. At that time, more than 700 Italian doctors had signed an open letter opposing the killing of Eluana, saying that such an action is an attack against the “basic rules of good medical practice as established in the declaration of Helsinki.”

EMBASSY OF ITALY IN THE UNITED STATES
3000 Whitehaven Street, NW - Washington, DC 20008
Tel (202) 612-4400 - Fax (202) 518-2154
Press and Public Affairs Office
Tel (202) 612-4444
Fax (202) 518-2154
e-mail: stampa.washington@esteri.it

Embassy of Italy in Ottawa
275 Slater Street, 21st Floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5H9
CANADA
Tel +1.613.232.2401 - Fax +1.613.233.1484
ambasciata.ottawa@esteri.it
Press and Information
Tel: +1-613-232-2401
Fax: +1-613-233-1484
email: info.ottawa@esteri.it

EMBASSY OF ITALY IN LONDON
14, Three Kings Yard
London W1K 4EH
Tel.: +44 (0)20 73122200
Fax: +44 (0)20 73122230
ambasciata.londra@esteri.it
Gianluca Grandi, First Counsellor
Domestic Politics, EBRD
bers.amblondra@esteri.it

Other Italian Embassies:

http://www.esteri.it/MAE/Templates/SediTemplate.aspx?NRMODE=...

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

700 Italian Doctors ask that Eluana’s Life be Spared
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09011301.html

It is “Illegal” to Stop Food and Hydration of Vulnerable Patients: Top Italian Minister
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08121703.html

[Sun]

Prayers for Eluana!

[MountainFlower]

Father forgive them!

[Alamo-Girl]

How sad. Prayers for her and all the loved ones!

[wagglebee]

How sad. Prayers for her and all the loved ones!

Unfortunately, it is Eluana's own father who is trying to kill her.

[Alamo-Girl]

Then he needs prayer even more so.

[wagglebee]

Eluana Englaro Update!

There is still hope for Eluana!

Thread by me.

Breaking News: Italian Government Ready with Draft Law to Stop the Killing of Eluana Englaro

UDINE, Italy, February 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Today, the Italian government announced it has made ready a draft emergency measure that would prohibit the removal of food and hydration from vulnerable patients. As of this writing, the measure, though drafted and ready, has not yet been formally adopted, the final decision being that of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The move comes as pro-life Italians have urgently called upon the government to intervene in the case of Eluana Englaro who had been removed late Tuesday night to a nursing home willing to participate in her killing. 

The measure, called a "decree law" entitled "Urgent Provisions on Nutrition and Hydration," says, "Pending the approval of a complete and comprehensive legislative framework in the field of end-of-life, nutrition and hydration, as forms of life support physiologically designed to alleviate suffering, cannot under any circumstances be rejected by the person concerned or suspended from caregiver subjects unable to provide for themselves".

Under Italian law, a decree law can be put into place by the head of state in urgent circumstances, for a period of 60 days while Parliament considers it for permanent approval. The draft law was announced as an emergency measure after Eluana Englaro, who is often referred to as "Italy's Terri Schiavo," was transferred late Tuesday night to La Quiete hospital in Udine, that has agreed to participate in her killing by removal of her food and hydration tube.

Pier Ferdinando Casini, a member of the Chamber of Deputies and a member of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, said, "We respect the grief of the family of Eluana and we are close to her father, but we believe that nobody has the right to life and death on a person."

Eluana, now 38, has been in a state of severely diminished consciousness for 17 years following a car accident in 1992. Eluana Englaro's father, Beppino, has claimed that his daughter had indicated that she would not wish to live in such circumstances. He has petitioned the courts for over a decade, despite euthanasia being illegal in Italy, to have her food and hydration removed so that she can "be allowed to die". A lawyer for the family told media that the hospital will begin the withholding of fluid and food starting Friday.
 
In November, Italy's highest court of appeals, the Court of Cassation in Rome, upheld the ruling of a Milan lower court allowing the petition. Shortly after this ruling, a prominent Italian lawyer, Luca Silvestri, told LifeSiteNews.com that the best hope of saving Eluana's life would be such a law defining clearly that food and hydration could not be considered "medical treatment" subject to withdrawal at the request of patients.

Under Article 32 of the Italian Constitution, a patient has the right to accept or refuse medical therapies, but this has always been interpreted as excluding food and water. Should the government's draft law be adopted and food and water be clearly identified as not subject to Article 32, this potential "back door" to legal euthanasia by dehydration could be permanently closed. . .

[wagglebee]

I don't think it can be emphasized enough how big an effect it will have if pro-abortion Catholic politicians are denied Communion.

Thread by me.

Vatican Official: Bishops Have no Choice But to Refuse Communion to Pro-Abort Politicians

ROME, January 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Raymond Burke, in an exclusive interview last week, told LifeSiteNews.com that the issue of pro-abortion politicians continuing to receive Holy Communion is still one of major concern and that it is the duty of bishops to ensure that they are refused.

He told LifeSiteNews.com, "I don't understand the continual debate that goes on about it. There's not a question that a Catholic who publicly, and after admonition, supports pro-abortion legislation is not to receive Holy Communion and is not to be given Holy Communion."

"The Church's law is very clear," said Archbishop Burke, who was appointed last year by Pope Benedict XVI as the head of the Church's highest court, the Apostolic Signatura. "The person who persists publicly in grave sin is to be denied Holy Communion, and it [Canon Law] doesn't say that the bishop shall decide this. It's an absolute."

. . .

[wagglebee]

The ONLY thing the Obamunists have "faith" in is death.

Thread by me.

President Barack Obama's New Faith-Based Advisors Include Abortion Advocates

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama has compiled a new group of faith-based advisors who will comprise his new White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. However, unlike President Bush's group of religious advisors, Obama's includes abortion advocates...

[wagglebee]

The Eurosocialists are going to try to impose infanticide by judicial fiat.

Thread by Pyro7480.

European Court Rules Portugal Broke the Law by Blocking Abortion Boat

STRASBOURG, February 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Portuguese government broke the law in preventing the Dutch abortion boat from landing when it attempted to enter Portuguese territory in 2004, when abortion was against the law. Abortionist and foundress of the "Women on Waves" project, Rebecca Gomperts, said she is delighted with the finding. "We shall use the judgment for new campaigns outside Europe," she said...

[wagglebee]

Zero is starting to remind me more and more of Hitler every day.

Thread by markomalley.

Obama's Culture of Death Justice Department

President Obama has now achieved a pay grade that requires him to confront weighty decisions regarding the state of this nation's legal order, and the protection of human life. Among those decisions will be whether to use the Department of Justice and our courts to advance a legal order that upholds a Culture of Life. The President appears to be signaling his approach through several nominations to the Department of Justice, and one must wonder whether the Culture of Death is at the threshold.

A number of the high-level nominees for Justice, if we view their records as an indicator, stand prepared to implement a legal agenda that would represent a radical departure from this nation's historic treatment of abortion, euthanasia and gay rights...

[Twink]

Thanks for the ping (and the other pings).

“I don’t think it can be emphasized enough how big an effect it will have if pro-abortion Catholic politicians are denied Communion.”

I agree. These politicians publicly claim to be Catholics then misrepresent what the Catholic Church teaches.

[wagglebee]

It is worth noting that the candidate who wins the majority of Catholic voters has won nearly every election since JFK in 1960, the ONLY exceptions have been 1968 (pre-Roe v. Wade), 2000 and POSSIBLY 1988.
http://cara.georgetown.edu/Presidential%20Vote%20Only.pdf

IF Catholics actually start to see that there are consequences for pro-abortion politicians, many will reconsider who they vote for. IF Catholic voters begin to vote consistently pro-life, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts and probably New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland will go into the GOP column.

[Twink]

“IF Catholics actually start to see that there are consequences for pro-abortion politicians, many will reconsider who they vote for. IF Catholic voters begin to vote consistently pro-life, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts and probably New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland will go into the GOP column.”

I just had this conversation with one of our new priests (your first sentence). He agreed and also made a point in last week’s homily to mention the Church teaching on abortion. It shocked a few parishioners.

[wagglebee]

The strange irony is that if the left abandoned their insistence on abortion they would probably get 75% of the Catholic vote.

[Twink]

That’s only because, historically speaking, the democrats were considered the party of the working class and most Catholics (ethnic) were in the working class. At least those who came here from Italy and Ireland in the late 1800’s, as my paternal and maternal grandparents did. Their children, my parents and their siblings, those who grew up during the Great Depression, fought in WWII, and thought FDR was a socialist and dictator, weren’t fooled. Maybe it had to do with their parents, my grandparents, who saw the danger in FDR and his policies.

I’d like to think that if more people were educated in what the democrat party represents that they wouldn’t be so eager to vote for politicians who want to keep them down and dependent on the government.

I’m not so sure that they’d get more of the Catholic vote if they abandoned their position on abortion. The Catholics who voted for this Administration, and those who vote for someone just because they’re Catholic (like JFK), and those that consistently vote for democrats, don’t have a real understanding of Catholicism or the Constitution.

[Sun]

Part of my email from Terri’s foundation for those who missed it:

“Today, the Italian government announced it has made ready a draft emergency measure that would prohibit the removal of food and hydration from vulnerable patients. As of this writing, the measure, though drafted and ready, has not yet been formally adopted, the final decision being that of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The move comes as pro-life Italians have urgently called upon the government to intervene in the case of Eluana Englaro who had been removed late Tuesday night to a nursing home willing to participate in her killing.”

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[wagglebee]

Eluana Enlargo Update

This is becoming eerily similar to Terri's execution. The Italian Council of Ministers has passed legislation to save Eluana, which the communist president is refusing to sign and the time to override this is not enough time to save her.

Bobby Schindler has also issued a statement.

There are three threads, one by GonzoII and two by me.

Italian government passes emergency decree to save Eluana Englaro

Rome, Feb 6, 2009 / 10:50 am (CNA).- Italy’s Council of Ministers, headed by Silvio Berlusconi, unanimously approved an emergency decree on Friday to stop the father of Eluana Englaro from killing her by removing hydration and food. However, this morning at the clinic La Quiete, where Eluana is staying, the process to end her life was initiated.

According to the newspaper La Repubblica, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi commented on his motivation for passing the emergency decree, saying, "I do not want the responsibility for the death of Eluana."

The decision of the ministers could become law, but still requires the signature of Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano, who is reportedly against the decree. Unless the decree is signed, Englaro’s feeding tube will be removed today, after which it will take two weeks for her to starve to death. . .

Italy’s Communist President Refuses to Sign Passed Temporary Measure to Save Eluana Englaro

ROME, February 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Italy's President and head of state, has refused to sign an emergency measure, passed by the government, that would save the life of Eluana Englaro, the young woman whose food and hydration is being removed starting today. The ratification by the President is required under Italy’s parliamentary system for the law to take effect.

The government announced at 3 p.m. (Italian time) today that it had approved the temporary measure, called a “decree law,” that was drafted to prohibit the removal of food and hydration from vulnerable patients. A decree law is a measure that can be put into place by the Council of Ministers as an emergency measure and will be in effect for 60 days while Parliament debates whether to adopt it permanently.

Napolitano’s refusal has “frozen” the measure and although there is a procedure in place in Parliament to override his decision, it will take 20 days to implement, by which time Eluana will have been successfully dehydrated to death. . .

Terri’s Foundation Denounces Italian President's Refusal to Stop Eluana Englaro Dehydration Death

ST. PETERSBURG, FL, February 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In spite of an emergency decree passed by the Italian government, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign the decree that would save the life of Eluana Englaro, the young woman whose food and hydration has been removed this morning. The ratification by the President is required under Italy’s parliamentary system for the law to take effect. Eluana Englaro, who has been called “Italy’s Terri Schiavo,” has been receiving food and water via a feeding tube since a 1992 car crash that left her with a brain injury. Her father, Beppino Englaro, has been seeking to end her life for nearly 10 years. Today’s events will clear the way for Eluana to experience what Terri’s Foundation called a “barbaric and inhumane death” by starvation and dehydration unless President Napolitano signs this decree into law. “We are very disappointed to hear that President Napolitano is reluctant to sign the decree that would spare Eluana from a horrific death,” noted Terri Schiavo’s brother, Bobby Schindler. Schindler added, “It is incumbent upon any official to protect and safeguard the value and dignity of all life, regardless of a person’s physical limitations. Eluana is not dying and only needs food and water – the most basic care – to live. This at the very least should be provided for her and we are asking for everyone to contact the Embassy of Italy in the US at (202) 612-4400, and communicate to the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano that he should IMMEDIATELY sign the decree which would prevent Eluana’s inhuman dehydration death.”

. . .

"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."

[wagglebee]

An interesting expose on how some imagined "right to privacy" is destroying our culture.

Thread by annalex.

Janet Smith on the Right to Privacy: How Bad Laws Allowed the Culture of Death

ST. PAUL, Minnesota, OCT. 17, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Most Americans, even Catholics, probably take it for granted that the U.S. Constitution protects their right to privacy. But they may be surprised to find out that no such right is in the Constitution.

Furthermore, the advent of the right to privacy in American constitutional law built a foundation for the culture of death to thrive in this country, according to philosopher Janet E. Smith.

To diagnose the problem further, Smith has written “The Right to Privacy” (Ignatius). In the book, Smith discusses how Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” properly identifies the philosophical views that led to the invention of the right to privacy as we know it, as well as how it was used to advance the culture of death. . .

[wagglebee]

Some things you just can't make up!

Thread by me.

Wesley J. Smith Kevorkian Speech Shows US Flag with Swastika

This says a lot that is wrong at our universities--where social outlaws are celebrated and given huge speaking fees--and with the murderer Jack Kevorkian. At his recent speech at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, he had an American flag behind him with the Swastika in the field of stars. From the story:

On Thursday night, Jack Kevorkian pulled another stunt in front of an audience of thousands at Nova Southeastern University: "Let's all say the Pledge of Allegiance," he said, then flipped a U.S. flag to reveal a replica on the other side with a swastika where the blue and stars would have been.

Since Kevorkian's obsession was to conduct human experimentation on people he was euthanizing, perhaps he was speaking about himself with the flag stunt.

That thousands of people turned out to see him shows the decadent power of celebrity that is rotting decency and virtue in our culture.