Euthanasia becomes a political crisis in Italy

1 ANSWERS

1. Amit bang
   

   The court has ruled in favor of Eluana Englaro’s right to die. She has been in a coma for 17 years, since a car crash in 1992. The doctors at the private clinic where she has been recently transferred have already started to withhold food from her feeding tube. Her family has already allowed her to die. Now, her case is the subject of a fierce debate that has changed from mere ethical to political. Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has drafted an emergency decree to prevent her scheduled euthanasia. The Roman Catholic Church supports him completely.
   
   Now comes the crisis. Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano is now opposing Berlusconi’s move, saying that the decree is unconstitutional and overrules a previous court decision. The case of Eluana now divides the country between supporters of the “right to life” and advocates of the “right to die.” It is a sensitive issue since the law that is about to be passed will set a precedent for all such future cases. The obstacles have also multiplied. The health minister threatened to cut off care centers willing to engage in what he sees as an ‘assassination.’ The left calls for radical events, while the petitions are multiplying on the Internet.
   
   No one seems to have noticed that the proposed way for Eluana’s death may very well be what should be construed as inhuman. According to the doctors, Elena will take about two weeks to die with the cutting off of her food supply. It is her family’s wish that hers be a ‘gentle death.’ What they do not realize is the fact that it shall be a long and drawn-out way of dying, expediting her release from coma in still a harsh and cruel way. Where’s the humanity in all that?

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