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.”

EMBASSY OF ITALY IN THE UNITED STATES
3000 Whitehaven Street, NW - Washington, DC 20008
Tel (202) 612-4400 - Fax (202) 518-2154
Press and Public Affairs Office
Tel (202) 612-4444
Fax (202) 518-2154
e-mail: stampa.washington@esteri.it

Embassy of Italy in Ottawa
275 Slater Street, 21st Floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5H9
CANADA
Tel +1.613.232.2401 - Fax +1.613.233.1484
ambasciata.ottawa@esteri.it
Press and Information
Tel: +1-613-232-2401
Fax: +1-613-233-1484
email: info.ottawa@esteri.it

EMBASSY OF ITALY IN LONDON
14, Three Kings Yard
London W1K 4EH
Tel.: +44 (0)20 73122200
Fax: +44 (0)20 73122230
ambasciata.londra@esteri.it
Gianluca Grandi, First Counsellor
Domestic Politics, EBRD
bers.amblondra@esteri.it

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

[wagglebee]

If EVER there was an opportunity for the Catholic Church to make it crystal clear that being pro-abortion is unacceptable this is it!

Thread by Coleus.

Pro-Abortion Nancy Pelosi to Meet Pope - HLI Says "Excommunicate the Speaker"

Reports have surfaced that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a self-avowed "Catholic" adamant abortion supporter, intends to head a delegation to Euope that will meet with Pope Benedict XVI. Today the Drudge Report headlined a report by Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) on Houston's KSEV radio that Pelosi hopes to pass the federal economic stimulus bill in time for her join the group, which reportedly leaves Friday evening.

According to Il Tempo, Pelosi will arrive in Rome Sunday afternoon, her first visit to the city since becoming Speaker of the House. It has not been determined when Ms. Pelosi plans to meet the Pope. Speaker Pelosi has drawn severe criticism from Catholic leaders for her misrepresentation of Catholic doctrine in light of her extreme pro-abortion position. . .

[wagglebee]

The RINOs are seeking to totally destroy the GOP and conservatism.

Thread by me.

Pro-Abortion Republican Groups Announce New Partnership to Weaken GOP

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Two pro-abortion Republican groups have announced a newly-formed partnership designed to weaken the long-standing pro-life platform the GOP maintains. The Republican Majority for Choice and the WISH List (Women in the Senate and House) hope to team up to drag the party to the left.

Colleen Parro, the head of the Republican National Coalition for Life tells LifeNews.com about the new effort.

"Feeling scorned after eighteen years of trying and failing to remove the pro-life language from the Republican national platform, and with the last three Republican presidential administrations [taking a pro-life stance], pro-choice Republican women are trying to make a come-back," Parro said. . .

[wagglebee]

The problem is that Zero is actually happy that an American baby/burden is murdered every 25 seconds.

Thread by NYer.

Obama Receives Red Envelopes

ebruary 12, 2009 5:25:35 PM by NYer

Red Envelope Project

A grassroots initiative to express moral outrage over President Obama’s administration’s promotion of abortion is garnering much Internet attention.

Just as American revolutionaries used tea to protest the action’s of the British government, those concerned with life are utilizing the power of red envelopes to protest abortion.

Supporters have been encouraged to send an empty red envelope to President Obama, symbolizing a single child who died because of abortion.

On the back of each envelope, is a handwritten message that reads: “This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility begins with conception.”

[wagglebee]

Forty-six years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was jailed in Birmingham for peacefully protesting civil rights atrocities and it seems that Birmingham hasn't changed one bit.

Thread by tcg.

Pro-Life Workers Arrested in Birmingham, It’s a Sad Day for Human and Civil Rights 2/13/2009

Blythe told Catholic Online that one officer approached her, saying the group was trespassing. She responded by explaining that they were on a public sidewalk and simply exercising their constitutional rights. The officer responded, “You just can’t be here.”

Not long after that she was stopped from her videotaping and placed in the back of a squad car. Another young woman was also placed next to her whose handcuffs were so tight she was crying out in pain. Police were unresponsive to pleas from Blythe to loosen the woman’s handcuffs.

One member of the group, Rev. Henry “Bud” Shaver, a 30 year-old youth minister, was not only handcuffed but had his feet shackled at the jail. Earlier, when he was arrested near the high school campus he was told by police that the sidewalk was not public property for “non-citizens of Birmingham.”

The intervention by the Birmingham Police Department began when a campus officer called them after the Survivors declined to leave the area. The group explained as they knew they had a right to stand on the sidewalk, which allegedly made no impression on the officer. . .

[wagglebee]

The murder with indignity crowd has issued a seven point plan to kill the "useless eaters."

Thread by me.

Wesley J. Smith: Compassion and Choices "Seven Principles" to Death on Demand

Compassion and Choices (formerly Hemlock Society) is the abundantly funded, prime mover and shaker for the assisted suicide movement in the USA. It unquestionably had a good year in 2008 with the passage of I-1000 in Washington and the imposition of a fundamental state constitutional right to "die with dignity" in Montana. It has now issued its "Seven Principles" to "improve end-of-life care and expand patient choices." A clear and literal reading of these "principles," demonstrate that the goal is an essential death on demand. . .

[wagglebee]

The death ghouls think they can use Eluana's death to convince even more Italians that death is an obligation.

Thread by me.

Italian Left Launches "Living Wills" Euthanasia Campaign in the Wake of Eluana Englaro Crisis

ROME, February 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Italian legislators are said to be quietly dropping a proposed measure that would have prohibited the withdrawal of food and hydration from comatose patients after the death of Eluana Englaro.

While Eluana herself was being buried in a Catholic ceremony in her native village of Lecco, the Italian government turned its attention to pending legislation on "living wills" that many fear will usher in a legal situation that will make cases such as hers more common. Direct euthanasia remains illegal in Italy, but the removal of food and hydration remains a contested issue, and no direct action was taken in the case of Eluana to stop her killing.

Although under Italian law a patient, or a patient's guardian, can refuse treatment, it remains to be seen if food and hydration will be regarded as medical treatment under the new law, which is heavily favored by the left.

Italian novelist Umberto Eco, in an article published in the left-leaning La Repubblica daily supporting the euthanasia push, wrote, "Now that this young woman is dead, we can talk about these problems without fear of behaving like a stalking jackal around a suffering body."

. . .

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

[wagglebee]

Not surprisingly, the culture of death sounded no different 70 years ago than they do today.

MERCY DEATH LAW READY FOR ALBANY (2/14/39)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Dante3]

BUMP

[Dante3]

RIP

At least the other relatives overruled the father about the funeral ceremony.

[wagglebee]

A wonderful editorial by the father of a baby with Down Syndrome.

Thread by redk.

Down syndrome a modern-day death sentence

Claire will never read these words. But at least she is alive and brings joy to her many friends and family members. You see, Claire is a survivor. She survived one of the most ruthlessly effective extermination programs in modern times.

Claire has Down syndrome.

Most of her Down syndrome brothers and sisters never got to be born. In the United States, more than 90 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. (In some other countries this number reaches 95 percent.) But apparently this isn't enough for those who would eradicate these defective persons. The problem is that the current methods for diagnosing the Down defect are ultrasound, biochemical exams or amniocentesis. But amniocentesis is expensive, invasive and potentially harmful to mothers and ultrasound may not be accurate. . .

[wagglebee]

The ability of the culture of death to lie to itself is staggering.

Thread by narses.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Good deeds documented

When I became a board member at Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest a few months ago, I was trained in my calling; but nothing could have prepared me for the letter to the editor by Hans Neumann of Spirit Lake that appeared on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

Mr. Neumann, whom I have not met, began with a rant, "Elections have consequences. We lost; they won, so they can do what they want for now."

As a clergyman for most of my adult life, I do not accept "them and us" divisions among and between people with differing views. Planned Parenthood supports keeping abortion legal because it protects women's health and lives. However, we never try to convince someone who opposes abortion they are wrong. Instead, we trust people and seek the middle ground. We understand that the only way to reduce the need for abortion is to ensure people have the family planning information and services they need to apply their own moral compasses and make their own decisions. . .

[wagglebee]

I fear with Zero we will see more and more of this.

Thread by me.

Pro-life pastor prepares for sentencing

An Oakland, California, pastor could face jail time for expressing his pro-life views.

Pastor Walter Hoye ran into trouble with an abortion clinic while doing an informational picket. Dennis Howard, leader of The Movement for a Better America, believes Hoye is innocent.

"His approach was simply to carry a sign that said 'Jesus Loves You. Can We Help?' and offering those who wanted it some information about alternatives to abortion," Howard explains.

[wagglebee]

This girl is amazing!

Thread by GonzoII.

12-Year-Old Stuns Pro-Choice Teacher and School with Pro-Life Presentation (On YouTube)

TORONTO, February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - 12-year-old "Lia" of Toronto has become a star at her school and on Youtube with her five-minute pro-life speech, crafted for a school competition.  Despite discouragement and outright opposition, Lia's presentation was so well done that she reportedly won the contest she was told she would be disqualified from, due to the "controversial" message of her speech.

Lia's mother broke the story of her daughter's win in an e-mail to the Moral Outcry blog. LifeSiteNews.com attempts to contact Lia and her parents for comment were unreturned by press time. The speech, however, is available in its entirety on Youtube, where it has been viewed over 100,000 times and sparked a heated discussion. (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOR1wUqvJS4&feature=channel_page)

"What if I told you that right now, someone was choosing if you were gonna live or die?" begins the charismatic seventh-grader in a practice recording of the speech posted on Youtube.  "What if I told you that this choice wasn't based on what you could or couldn't do, what you'd done in the past, or what you would do in the future? And what if I told you, you could do nothing about it? 

"Fellow students and teachers, thousands of children are right now in that very situation.  Someone is choosing without even knowing them whether they are going to live or die.  That someone is their mother.  And that choice is abortion."

Lia, speaking easily and with sunny enthusiasm, fires off answers to several common objections in the brief speech. 

"Why do we think that just because a fetus can't talk or do what we do, it isn't a human being yet?"  She asks.  "Some babies are born after only five months.  Is this baby not human? 

"We would never say that. Yet abortions are performed on 5-month-old fetuses all the time.  Or do we only call them humans if they're wanted?

"Think about the child's rights, that were never given to it. No matter what rights the mother has, it doesn't mean we can deny the rights of the fetus," she said. "We must remember that with our rights and our choices come responsibilities, and we can't take someone else's rights away to avoid our responsibilities."

. . .

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[wagglebee]

I would be shocked if the Pope were to say anything publicly, but I hope he reads Pelosi the riot act when they are in private.

Thread by TaxachusettsMan.

Pope-Pelosi Wednesday Meeting On

In news from another part of the Roman-American fray, it's been confirmed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will meet Pope Benedict following Wednesday's General Audience as part of her Italian tour: On Monday at noon in Rome, the Vatican’s Press Office confirmed to [Catholic News Agency] that Pope Benedict will be receiving U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in an audience at noon on Wednesday.

Pelosi, a self-proclaimed "ardent Catholic" who has sparked significant criticism from fellow Catholics in the U.S. for her pro-abortion views, arrived in Italy on Sunday for an eight-day official visit.... Although numerous reports have been published either confirming or denying that Pope Benedict would receive Pelosi in an audience, the Holy See’s Press Office confirmed to CNA on Monday at noon Rome time, that the Holy Father will receive the U.S. representative on Wednesday at midday.

[wagglebee]

It's a sad world we live in when something so obvious needs to be stated.

Thread by GonzoII.

Vatican: Food and water 'not medical treatment' says senior official

Rome, 17 Feb. (AKI) - A senior Vatican official on Monday weighed into the euthanasia debate currently raging in Italy following the death of a comatose Italian woman last week whose feeding tubes were removed. President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Rino Fisichella, said that feeding patients is not a medical treatment but an inalienable human requirement.

"Food and water are not medical treatment,"Fisichella stated."

"Thousands of doctors and scientists share our belief that food and water are not medical treatment but an essential requirements for life which can never be eliminated," Fisichella stated.

While euthanasia is illegal in Italy, refusing medical treatment is not.

[wagglebee]

The BILLION PLUS dead babies worldwide in the past century should be proof enough.

Thread by GonzoII.

Spanish Medical Expert: Damage to Women Caused by Abortion is Scientifically Proven

GUATEMALA, February 16, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) - An eminent Spanish biologist and bioethicist recently gave an interview in Guatemala stating that science has proven the damaging effects of abortion on the victim's mother.

Dr. Natalia Lopez Moratalla has a master's degree in bioethics and a doctorate in biology, and is the former director of the Interfaculty Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Navarra Medical School in Spain. She currently acts as an advisor to Spain's parliamentary subcommittee studying the reform of the nation's abortion law.

[wagglebee]

This is just sickening.

Thread by me.

Mother of Baby in Florida Botched Abortion Case Speaks Out About Experience

Miami, FL (LifeNews.com) -- The mother of a baby who was killed in a tragic and bizarre botched abortion case is now speaking out about her experience and the lawsuit she filed against the abortion practitioner. Sycloria Williams gave an exclusive interview to the Florida Catholic after a medical board revoked the abortion practitioner's license. . .