It is clear that the death of Eluana Englaro will lead to a serious political debate in Italy.A reuters article is reporting on the political exchange. The article states:
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Eluana Englaro, who died in the middle of a debate about her right to die after 17 years in coma, had been killed and the head of state was among those responsible.
Berlusconi is reported to have said:
"Eluana did not die a natural death, she was killed," the conservative premier told Libero newspaper, blaming Italy's leftist President Giorgio Napolitano for rejecting an emergency decree that would have forced doctors to resume feeding her.
"Napolitano made a serious mistake," another paper quoted Berlusconi as saying. The premier lamented that the bill he then sent to parliament to stop Eluana's nutrition from being suspended "did not make it in time."
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Conference of Catholic Bishops was reported to have stated:
"I hope God will help us to heal this wound," adding that the country "needs a just law, for the good of our society, to avoid "Inhuman" events like this being repeated."
Umberto Bossi, head of the Northern League stated:
"You cannot let someone die of hunger and thirst, ... It is something primitive, inhuman, unacceptable."
Dr. Gian Luigi Gigle, head of the "For Eluana" anti-euthanasia group stated:"Something very strange has happened," Outside the Udine clinic where she died people prayed and sang through the night, holding candles.
Meanwhile the article stated that the l'Unita newspaper had as its headline:
"In Pace" -- "in peace."
No matter what side of the euthanasia debate people take, it should be universally accepted that killing a person, who is cognitively disabled and not otherwise dying, by dehydration is not a compassionate or dignified way to die. There should be a universal condemnation of these inhumane acts.
Link to the Reuters article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE5192JX20090210
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