Mercy killing allowed in Italy
Posted by Kiran | Under Society and People, Spirituality and Religion Thursday Nov 13, 2008
Italy’s highest appeal court has authorized a father to disconnect the feeding tube which has kept his comatose daughter alive for 16 years, removing the last legal hurdle in a landmark right-to-die case that has split the country.
The court upheld a July ruling by a lower court in Milan that doctors could stop artificially feeding Eluana Englaro, 37, as it had been proven that the road accident victim’s coma was irreversible.
Her father Beppino Englaro has been battling his way through Italy’s courts to seek an end to the life support for more than 10 years.
Pro-euthanasia activists hailed the verdict as historic, but political leaders were split over the case, with several Catholic lawmakers criticizing it.
The Milan court said it had been proven that Englaro’s coma was irreversible and that before the accident she had stated her preference to die rather than be kept alive artificially.
The Englaro case has been compared to that of American Terri Schiavo, who spent 15 years in a vegetative state and was allowed to die in 2005 after a long court battle.
Medical experts said it could take up to two weeks for Eluana to die once life support was removed, but that she would feel no pain.
