Italian Eluana dead after 17 years in coma

Rome  – Italian news paper Corriere Della Sera announced that the Italian woman that has been in a coma for the last 17 years passed away earlier today.
Eluana Englaro died on Monday February 9, 2009 at 8:10 pm GMT+1 after food and hydration ceased to be administrated for the last four days.

The news came as the Italian Senate was discussing the bill which the Italian government had tried to stop the process that was approved by the Milan Court of Appeal.

The chairman of the House, Renato Schifani, has asked the senators to observe a minute of silence.

Source: Corriere Della Sera Italian

Source: Corriere Della Sera English translation

Addendum:

A comatose Italian woman whose “right to die” has triggered a constitutional crisis and provoked an intervention from the Pope has died, it was confirmed tonight.

The death of Eluana Englaro, 38, was announced by doctors at the clinic in Udine where she was being treated even as the country’s Senate debated a decree which would have stopped her life support being switched off.

Ms Englaro had been in a vegetative state for 17 years after a car accident.

The centre Right government of Silvio Berlusconi had wanted to make it illegal for carers of people ”unable to take care of themselves” to suspend artificial feeding.

Mr Berlusconi launched the effort after President Napolitano refused to sign an emergency decree on the grounds of unconstitutionality, saying it clashed with November’s supreme court ruling giving Ms Englaro’s father Beppino permission to find doctors who would end her life. The Vatican and Catholic Church fiercely opposed the ruling.

Ms Englaro had been in a vegetative state for 17 years after a car accident.

Maurizio Sacconi, the Minister of Health, issued a statement to express “the profound sorrow of all Italians”.

The Englaro case has become a symbol for the Vatican’s “pro-life” campaign but also for right-to-die campaigners. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian Episcopal Conference, said that refusing food and water to Ms Englaro was murder. “A light is going out, the light of a life,” he said.

Pope Benedict had asked the faithful to pray “for those who are gravely ill but cannot in any way provide for themselves and are totally dependent on the care of others”. He did not refer directly to Ms Englaro but reaffirmed “the absolute and supreme dignity of every human being”.

The tussle over Ms Englaro’s life has revived accusations that the Vatican is dictating Italian policy. Mr Berlusconi, who had previously stayed out of the controversy, reacted after Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, implored him to “stop this crime against humanity”.

Mr Berlusconi said he believed that he represented the feelings of most Italians. Opinion polls, however, suggest that Italians are divided, with 47 per cent in favour of Ms Englaro’s “right to die”, 47 per cent against, and 6 per cent undecided.

Source: Times online