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

[BykrBayb]

You have have that backwards. Starvation and dehydration, together or separate, are torture. There is a reason we don’t execute guilty people this way. It’s inhumane. How much more inhumane is it to torture an innocent person to death this way?

[BykrBayb]

I think they like to call them “choosers” or something like that.

[BykrBayb]

You know, in the spirit of “choosing” “vegetables” to death.

[BykrBayb]

Blaspheme much?

Providing the loving care that God demands will in no way prevent the loved one from going to Heaven.

[Jean S]

Do you have a less "arrogant" term for people who support the culture of death?

Your problem is this, you label anyone who disagrees with you, even on one small detail, as a deathbot or a supporter of the culture of death, I've seen you use other labels too.

It makes you look stupid and unable to rationally argue your position, you resort to namecalling instead.

[BykrBayb]

What is your problem? Our obeying God’s commandments does not cause the beneficiaries of God’s love to burn in hell. You should give serious thought to your behavior though.

[wagglebee]

Your problem is this, you label anyone who disagrees with you, even on one small detail,

Euthanasia is not "one small detail" of the culture of death, they have succeeded in one billion abortion deaths worldwide in the past century, euthanasia is the next plank of their agenda.

[BykrBayb]

Remember how violent they became while they were demanding the brutal murder of Terri Schiavo? Well, here we go again. It’s an insatiable bloodlust.

[firebrand]

Thomas Perrelli, Obama's Associate Attorney General nominee, is known mostly for his role in defending Terri Schiavo's husband, wherein he worked alongside prominent euthanasia attorney George Felos and the Florida ACLU to withdraw life-sustaining treatment for Mrs. Schiavo.

Third-highest post in the Justice Department. Bears repeating (from markomalley's thread).

[wagglebee]

I find it ironic that the FReepers who supported Terri’s murder no longer like Perrelli now that he works for Obama, though they still support his agenda.

[firebrand]

I can think of apter words than “ironic.” How about “crazy”?

[wagglebee]

And hypocritical.

[Caramelgal]

I don't see that any posts have been removed on this thread. Is this the photo you're talking about?

Well I stand corrected then. When I refreshed the thread however, I would swear to you that the photos were gone with the “comment removed by moderator”.

Now I don’t see any “comment removed by moderator” on this thread so either it was my error or the mod changed his/her mind or was over ruled. In any case:

Lisa McPherson was started and dehydrated to death, just like Terri was. It DOES NOT take any sort of medical expertise to dehydrate someone to death, what it does take is a complete lake of human decency.

No, the Lisa McPherson case is not “just like” the Shiavo case. Lisa McPherson was denied medical care by her Scientologist handlers. She was mentally ill and not in a coma or vegetative state. She was denied proper medical care and was abused and starved to death by some religious wackos.

Posting pictures of Lisa McPherson and drawing comparisons to Terri Shiavo because of the similarly of their physical appearance is rather disingenuous.

My mother in-law, after many years of suffering a slow but progressive terminal illness and infirmity and declining mental capacity and her refusal to eat, was admitted to a long term medical nursing home. Every day that my husband and I visited with her, which was almost daily, she told us how much pain she was in and how tired she was and how much she looked forward to going to Heaven and being reunited with Jesus and her parents and brothers and sisters.

After she suffered a stroke and lapsed into a deep vegetative state, it was actually her doctors who insisted she be placed on a feeding tube and we agreed with that decision at the time.

However, after six years of her being on a feeding tube, being in a vegetative state, moved from one facility to another and another, I can tell you that at the time of her death, my mother in law looked just as bad if not worse than the photos of Lisa McPherson.

We did have a DNR order, one that was ignored by the hospital the first time her heart stopped, resulting in the breaking of several of her ribs and then a bout of pneumonia that put her on a respirator for many weeks.

When she finally did die, while we were saddened by her passing, we were also relived for the end of her suffering. The last years of her life, extended beyond what was merciful or medically reasonable with a feeding tube, resulted in her being in a rigid fetal position, her skin paper thin and full of lesions and abrasions.

The director of the funeral home told us that he had to literally break her bones in order to be able to place her into a coffin. Fortunately that was the last indignity she had to endure.

I am pro-life and against euthanasia or medically assisted suicide. But I am also against prolonging the life of the physical body when it is against the wishes of the patient, their family and medically irresponsible.

[BykrBayb]

That’s what happens when someone has no beliefs of their own. They believe whatever their keepers tell them to believe. They support murder because they’re told to. They don’t actually submit to God, so they don’t know the difference between right and wrong.

[wagglebee]

Posting pictures of Lisa McPherson and drawing comparisons to Terri Shiavo because of the similarly of their physical appearance is rather disingenuous.

The pictures are posted SOLELY to show what a murder by dehydration looks like.

[BykrBayb]

Some of the death cultists have a bloodlust, but some of them are just trying to rationalize having gone along with the murder of someone they cared about, when they were too ignorant to realize what was happening. Rather than admit they were duped, or admit they did something wrong, they try to ease their conscience by convincing others that what they did was right. Heroic even. It’s a sad thing to watch unfolding. Eventually, they go berserk, because they’re forced to see the truth. The longer and harder they fight to hide the truth from themselves and others, the worse it is for them when they finally see.

[Deo volente]

It’s deja vu all over again.

The pro-dehydration-and-starvation-to-death trolls are out in force tonight.