Italian government passes emergency decree to save Eluana Englaro

CatholicNewsAgency ^ | Rome, Feb 6, 2009

[GonzoII]

www.catholicnewsagency.com

Italian government passes emergency decree to save Eluana Englaro

Eluana Enlargo

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.

The Italian newspaper La Stampa reported on Friday that Prime Minister Berlusconi spoke with the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, but the Vatican "categorically denied" a phone conversation ever took place. La Stampa’s story was following the oft repeated accusation that the Catholic Church is trying to sway the political decisions surrounding Eluana’s case.

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[flaglady47]

“You are entirely right, BykrBayb. Death is not the worst thing, as it is already assured for everyone who is born. But to hasten it in the name of “mercy” or “compassion” is ghoulish and evil Doublespeak at its worst”

I suppose letting a shell of a person lie there for 17 years in a vegetative state is “mercy” and “compassion”, right? Wrong. That is what is truly evil and ghoulish.

[little jeremiah]

Who gets to decide who is worthy of life and who is not? You? God forbid!

[flaglady47]

“Who gets to decide who is worthy of life and who is not? You? God forbid!”

The state that woman was in was not life, not by a long shot. You go lie there with no consciousness for 17 years and then tell me all about how its life. It’s not, it’s torture.

[little jeremiah]

You have not experienced whatever she has experienced. And if you think starving and thirsting to death is preferable, this is proof that your conscience is dead.

[flaglady47]

“You have not experienced whatever she has experienced. And if you think starving and thirsting to death is preferable, this is proof that your conscience is dead.”

Oh yeah, if she had any sense of experience at all, it must have been a real thrill for her to realize she was trapped lying there for 17 years, doing nothing at all. Some experience. Wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. As to the starving and thirsting to death, it was an act of extreme generosity and love to put this woman out of her misery, although I doubt she had any sense of misery at the end at all, as she wasn’t conscious.

What you wished for her was a 17 year living death sentence. And you wanted her relatives, in particular her father, to abrogate his decision making and wishes, so that he too could suffer some more in life, on top of the 17 years of watching his daughter live the life of a vegetable. How charitable of you.

[little jeremiah]

WIth all due respect, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” should be done unto you pronto. You think it’s merciful to starve and thirst to death? May you experience that, since you think it’s so great.

Any other cruel and hateful statements you make will generate no response from me.

[flaglady47]

“WIth all due respect, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” should be done unto you pronto. You think it’s merciful to starve and thirst to death? May you experience that, since you think it’s so great.

Any other cruel and hateful statements you make will generate no response from me.”

With all due respect, it has been you that has personalized this issue by making such statements as above (that I should experience starving and thirsting to death). I therefore suggest that you should lie in an unconscious coma for 17 years, and that someone should come along to stop your relatives from ending such a state of “existence” so that you lie there in a coma for another 17 years. Tit for tat here, my friend.

And, I am sincerely hoping that I will not have a response from you, because it will be based totally on emotion and not on logic or rational thinking. So, we end this “conversation” here, as it never had anywhere to go in the first place. You are locked in your beliefs, and on this particular topic, I, in mine.