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.”

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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

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[wagglebee]

Eluana Enlargo Update

Eluana's fate continues to take a surreal course. It is obvious that the Italian Prime Minister will do everything possible to save her and we must pray that he doesn't back down.

The Pope is also making it clear that starving and dehydrating Eluana to death is murder.

There is a thread by GonzoII and one by me.

BREAKING: Italian Prime Minister Seeks to Stop Starvation of Handicapped/Emergency Legislation

ROME, February 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has sent a bill to the nation's Senate authorizing the government to prevent a handicapped woman from being dehydrated and starved to death by her father.

Seeking to bypass Italy's communist president, who refused to sign an emergency bill with the same text, Berlusconi hopes to have his bill approved by the nation's legislature within three days, enough time to save Eluana Englaro's life. Berlusconi's party has a strong majority in the Italian Parliament.

"If the possibility did not exist to use decrees, I would go to the people to request a change in the Constitution and the Government," Berlusconi reportedly said in a press conference yesterday. . .

Pope reaffirms life amid heated right-to-die case (Eluana Englaro)

ROME – Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that all human life must be protected, especially that of the weak and suffering, making a last-minute intervention in a right-to-die case that has convulsed Italy.

Groups of protesters — both for and against keeping Eluana Englaro alive — held demonstrations across the country on Saturday. Outside the clinic in the northern city of Udine where Englaro is being cared for, a few dozen people shouted "Eluana Viva!" or "Eluana Lives!"

Englaro, 38, has been in a vegetative state for 17 years after a car crash. On Friday, after a decade-long court battle, her nutrition began to be reduced in preparation for removing her feeding tubes, which her father has said was her wish.

Benedict didn't refer by name to Englaro in his message Saturday for the annual World Day of the Sick. But the pope said he wanted to reaffirm with vigor "the absolute and supreme dignity of every human being," even when "weak and shrouded in the mystery of suffering."

. . .

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

[wagglebee]

Wesley J. Smith has a post on his blog reminding us just how incredibly inhumane a murder Eluana faces.

Thread by me.

Wesley J. Smith: Eluana Englaro - Dehydration Begins

When the President of Italy refused to sign a decree delaying the dehydration death of Eluana Englaro--who some call the Italian Terri Schiavo--it seemed to seal her doom. But now the Prime Minister has moved up an emergency session of the Parliament.

We'll see how that plays out. But the point of this post is the attempt, yet again, to make death by dehydration seem benign. . .

[Drango]

There is nothing in this article about what Eluana wants. Nothing. Squatro. Nadda. Zip.

[wagglebee]

The ghouls at Big Murder in Wisconsin are giddy about the opportunity to kill even more babies.

Thread by Diana in Wisconsin.

Madison [WI] Center to Offer 2nd-trimester Abortions Within Few Weeks or Months

The board of the Madison Surgery Center unanimously approved an abortion clinic on Friday, meaning second-trimester abortions will be offered there within a few months.

The facility, at 1 S. Park St., will provide abortions primarily to women 19 to 22 weeks pregnant.

The service will replace the practice of Dr. Dennis Christensen, who had performed abortions up to 22 weeks at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Madison until he retired in December. Planned Parenthood will still do abortions up to 19 weeks. . .

[wagglebee]

I'm guessing that she DOES NOT want to be murdered like this:

[wagglebee]

GonzoII has posted an excellent thread about where our rights really come from.

Cardinal Bertone says 'God is source and guarantor of all rights'

Madrid, Feb 7, 2009 / 12:04 am (CNA).- The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said this week, “When the Magisterium of the Church speaks about human rights she does not forget to base them on God, the source and guarantor of all rights, nor does she forget to root them in the natural law.”

During a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the offices of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain in Madrid, the cardinal recalled, “The source of rights is never human consensus, as great as it may be.”

After emphasizing the intrinsic dignity of each person, Cardinal Bertone explained that “the current Roman Pontiff, in perfect continuity with the thinking of his predecessor, underscores that human rights are universal, they apply to all in virtue of the common origin of the person. In reality, the mark of universality is a consequence inscribed in the very concept of human rights: if human rights are those attributed to man for the mere fact of being man, it is therefore evident that they should be recognized for all those who meet this condition.”

“In our days, there is a continual and radical process of redefining individual human rights in very sensitive and fundamental areas, such as the family, the rights of the child and of women, etc. We should insist that human rights be ‘above’ politics and also above the ‘nation-state.’ They are truly supranational. No political minority or majority can change the rights of those who are most vulnerable in our society or the human rights inherent to all human persons,” he stated. . .

[Drango]

guessing is correct (without any other evidence).

[wagglebee]

Her father is claiming that she once said she wouldn’t want to live like this. However, her accident was in 1992 and at that time ANYBODY making statements like this was certainly talking about artificial life support, NOT food and water.

[Drango]

So based upon your guess you are willing to overrule her family?

[wagglebee]

Based upon the ABSENCE of a clear medical directive we must err on the side of life.

[wagglebee]

You are torturing her earthly body against her family wishes and perhaps her own.

So, she's NOT in a vegetative state and she CAN feel things?

And YOU believe that giving someone food and water is torture, but dehydrating someone to the point that their tongue cracks open, their eyes bleed and blood pours out of every bodily orifice IS NOT torture?

When the victim cannot speak, thousand of years of common law, and recent civil law says the family will is supreme.

Please show me the "thousands of years" of common law that condone euthanasia.

Worse, you are using a false theology to do extend your macabre beliefs to her.

No, it is the the beliefs of deathbots like YOU that is macabre.

I pray to God that you are nowhere near my family when our end time comes.

Based on your attitude I can only pray that you are nowhere near ANYONE who is disabled.

[Caramelgal]

I'm guessing that she DOES NOT want to be murdered like this:

Just for the sake of clarity, the poor woman in the photo you posted, that I now see has been removed by the Admin Mod, is not Terri Schiavo, as many people assume because of the resemblance, but Lisa McPherson.

Lisa McPherson was not under the care of any medical professionals at the time of her death but under the so called “care” of Scientologists.

[wagglebee]

Lisa McPherson was started and dehydrated to death, just like Terri was. It DOES NOT take any sort of medical expertise to dehydrate someone to death, what it does take is a complete lake of human decency.

[Jean S]

No, it is the the beliefs of deathbots like YOU that is macabre.

Not everyone who disagrees with you is a "deathbot". Your arrogance is appalling.

[wagglebee]

HERE is what our Lord, Jesus Christ had to say about starving and dehydrating the sick:

31 And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty. 32 And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. 34 Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:

36 Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. 37 Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? 39 Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee? 40 And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.

41 Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink. 43 I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you covered me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. 44 Then they also shall answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee? 45 Then he shall answer them, saying: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.

46 And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.
-- Matthew 25:31-46

[BykrBayb]

I don't see that any posts have been removed on this thread.

Is this the photo you're talking about?

Starvation/dehydration isn't pretty, is it?

[wagglebee]

Not everyone who disagrees with you is a "deathbot". Your arrogance is appalling.

Do you have a less "arrogant" term for people who support the culture of death?