Bill to Save Eluana moves into Senate

Rallies and Protests Continue as Bill to Save Eluana moves into Senate

Signs erected saying, "Eluana, do not be afraid; Rome has not deserted you"

While food and hydration are being withdrawn "gradually" from Eluana Englaro in a nursing facility in Udine, Italy's legislators continue to scramble for ways to block her killing. A bill put forward on Saturday by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to save Eluana's life at the eleventh hour has reached the Senate and hope remains that it can be implemented within a few days. On Friday, President Giorgio Napolitano had blocked an emergency measure that would have made the removal of food and hydration from helpless patients illegal.

Franca Alessio, a lawyer for Beppino Englaro, remained defiant, however, saying that even if Prime Minister Berlusconi's law is passed it will not create an obligation for doctors to stop the dehydration. "This ban is not retroactive, and cannot compel Eluana's assisting doctors to resume feeding," he said. (click here for more)

Italian Prime Minister Seeks to Stop Starvation of Handicapped Woman with Emergency Legislation

 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has sent a bill to the nation's Senate authorizing the government to prevent a handicapped woman from being dehydrated and starved to death by her father.

Seeking to bypass Italy's communist president, who refused to sign an emergency bill with the same text, Berlusconi hopes to have his bill approved by the nation's legislature within three days, enough time to save Eluana Englaro's life.  Berlusconi's party has a strong majority in the Italian Parliament.

"If the possibility did not exist to use decrees, I would go to the people to request a change in the Constitution and the Government," Berlusconi reportedly said in a press conference yesterday. (click here for more)

Neurologist says Eluana Englaro is a healthy woman

In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the neurologist of the Englaro family, Carlo Alberto Defanti, who is overseeing the withdrawal of food and water from Eluana Englaro, said the Italian woman is "healthy." "She has never had any diseases and has no need for antibiotics."

"For this reason," the association Scienza & Vita  stated, "it is even more incomprehensible that she has been removed from the care of the sisters at Lecco, who not long ago were taking care of her as a simple and genuine gesture of love." (click here for more)

Contact: Hilary White and Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Source URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com
Publish Date: February 7, 2009
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/090209_5.htm