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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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

[wagglebee]

Exactly!

[WVKayaker]

WHICH medications are you willing to use?

I am not a Luddite. I drink red wine daily. I also take meds for hypertension. I take a baby aspirin along with them.

I am a simple Christian who wishes you the best, and prays that you will get to know God well enough to trust Him to make the decisions on life and death. Most of these feeding tube withdrawal decisions are made out of simple selfishness, not love, just like the decision to insert it initially.

...and both sides are trying to play be God...

I know that whatever is on this earth is nothing, compared to what my Father has prepared for me...

[BykrBayb]

You can’t get to Heaven through the sins of others. If somebody murders you, that doesn’t buy you a ticket to Heaven.

[wagglebee]

I also take meds for hypertension. I take a baby aspirin along with them.

Why are these acceptable and not a feeding tube?

Feeding tubes have been used for thousands of years. Their recent success is primarily due to the development of plastics and antibiotics.

Feeding tubes snake through medical history

[BykrBayb]

Yes, I also would like an answer to that. Why is it acceptable for you to take aspirin and medicine for hypertension, but unacceptable for Eluana Englaro to receive food and water through a tube, and to be kept warm with blankets and shelter? I’ve been waiting quite a while for an explanation from you about your objection to her being kept warm.

[Captain Peter Blood]

Lord why would you want your precious daughter to die like that? Just give her a lethal injection of morphine if there is no hope, at least she won’t suffer.

[WVKayaker]

It is futile to argue these points. I will not be persuaded to join your little club, nor will you find my thoughts acceptable. I believe my faith in God is more important than your faith in medicines or technologies, no matter how long they have been used, nor when/how applied or withheld.

God is eternal, while all this is temporal. His kingdom is Spiritual, not flesh and blood! If your faith is in the tubes, it is misplaced. You should be anointing with oil, and laying on hands, with faith in the outcome. Anything less is ...not in God's will!

I'll hope to see you on the other side! I know I'll be there. God promised!

[Captain Peter Blood]

When this guys daughter had her accident she was 21, I very much doubt there were any conversations about what to do in this type of situation.
The man is a liar!!!!!!!

[wagglebee]

This is where we differ, I believe that medical advancements ARE a Blessing from God. AND I believe that it is disingenuous to accept aspirin and medicine for hypertension and not a feeding tube. We ARE NOT talking about “extraordinary” medical care like a ventilator, Eluana IS NOT brain dead, her heart beats and she breathes without any assistance, she simply needs food and water just like everyone else.

[wagglebee]

Exactly and ANY conversation seventeen years ago would have been about “extraordinary” life support like respirators, ventilators and heart bypass machines. Eluana IS NOT brain dead, she is disabled and is unable to eat or drink without a simple tube.

[Sun]

“The Italian government MAY have found a technicality which could prevent Eluana’s murder at least for the time being.”

Good news, and I hope it stays that way.

[BykrBayb]

May God protect us all from the snake worshipers.

[BykrBayb]

Is it just me, or do you find it odd to come across a post on the INTERNET, from someone claiming to abstain from modern technology?

[editor-surveyor]

Has the RC Church completely lost influence in Italy?

With the death culture advancing so rapidly, one wouldn’t want to slip on the sidewalk...

[JustaDumbBlonde]

As with many other issues that will confront us during our short time on this Earth, you will find a small percentage of folks on either side of an issue that are zealots. The vast majority of folks, probably 90% or so, fall somewhere in between and they have questions and value open discussion without name-calling.

If you are not a Schiavo-type zealot on these threads, you will be labeled as the opposite kind of zealot (deathbot, etc.) That's why these threads can sometimes have replies numbering in the thousands, largely made by a handful of folks that enjoy their echo chamber. Pity really. There are so many hearts and minds to be changed and, by and large, that is not accomplished by zealotry.

[Gene Eric]

Your relentless defense for those incapable of defending themselves is honorable. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if your detractors are concerned about the option to be liberated from life sustaining technology, or the simple right to kill themselves or someone else; someone terminally ill, suffering immense pain, etc.

I normally don’t weigh-in on this issue because it’s enormously complicated, very personal, and influenced by one’s beliefs, one’s Faith. You do a stellar job, however, of raising the Life perspective into clear view.

You and those against you aside, I thinks it’s cowardly and inhumane to dehydrate a person to death.

[little jeremiah]

Reading through this thread, even with all the deleted comments, is making my skin crawl with horror. How people can push for torturing innocent people to death - as though it’s merciful and ethical to so do - is like a symbol of so much that is wrong with the world.

I am so sad. I think the world is in for some terrible times, because if these demoniac people get in control - which looks to be more or less the case here with 0bama’s election and choices, and now in Italy, what to speak of so many other countries and their atrocities - we are all at risk. And this is just one of the great evils coming our way.

[little jeremiah]

Who has a quote from Nietzsche:

[I guess she means Nietzsche]

(”There are no facts, only interpretations.” -Nietze)

Which statement is complete contradiction to belief in God.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[wideminded]

Also, how do you account for the brain injured people, some of whom had been in conditions worse than Terri’s and for longer periods, who DO recover? That doesn’t sound irreversible to me.

Based on what I have heard about the autopsy(*) of Terri Schiavo, I do not believe that any patient in in the same condition has ever recovered or could recover. I am not a doctor but I have studied brain anatomy and function in depth at the graduate level.

While there are rare cases of persons in an apparent persistent vegetative state regaining a certain amount of mental function, I don't see how this was a possibility for someone with the particular type of extremely severe brain damage in this case.

(*) - "Examination of Schiavo’s nervous system by neuropathologist Stephen J. Nelson, M.D., revealed extensive injury. The brain itself weighed only 615 g, only half the weight expected for a female of her age, height, and weight, an effect caused by the loss of a massive amount of neurons. Microscopic examination revealed extensive damage to nearly all brain regions, including the cerebral cortex, the thalami, the basal ganglia, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the midbrain. ... Throughout the cerebral cortex, the large pyramidal neurons that comprise some 70% of cortical cells – critical to the functioning of the cortex – were completely lost. ... There was marked damage to important relay circuits deep in the brain (the thalami) ... The damage was, in the words of Thogmartin [Chief Medical Examiner], "irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons." - link