Euthanasia - are you for or against?

**j_avonni** · December 17th, 2006 07:27 AM

Take this case:

This story is from our news.com.au network
Source: Reuters

[SIZE="4"]Court rejects euthanasia appeal
[/SIZE]By Silvia Aloisi in Rome
December 17, 2006

AN Italian court has overnight rejected a request by a paralysed, terminally ill man who wants doctors to take him off life support in a case that has split the predominantly Catholic country, where euthanasia is illegal.

The pale, listless face of Piergiorgio Welby, 60, who suffers from advanced muscular dystrophy and is confined to bed but is lucid, has become one of the most recognised in Italy.

Speaking via a computer that interprets his eye movements, Mr Welby has appeared on news programmes and written to Italy's president asking to be taken off the respirator that keeps him alive so he can "find peace for my tortured and shattered body".

But in a 15-page verdict underscoring the legal complexity of the case, a Rome judge said that while Mr Welby had a right to have the respirator removed, that right was not "concretely safeguarded" by Italian law.

The judge said doctors could not be ordered to switch off life-support machines. Only politicians and lawmakers could fill the legal vacuum and "provide answers to the loneliness and despair" of terminally ill patients, she said.

Euthanasia supporters, who will stage pro-Welby vigils in 50 Italian cities later on Saturday, attacked the verdict, while opponents hailed it. Welby, who has been ill for 40 years but has seen his condition worsen recently, can appeal against the ruling. "This is a Pontius Pilate verdict, sacrificing the right of those who want to legally put an end to their suffering," said Silvio Viale, a doctor and a member of the Rose in the Fist party, which is part of Romano Prodi's centre-left government.

Another leftist politician, Paolo Cento, said he would propose calling a special session of parliament on the issue.

But the centre-right opposition defended the court's ruling. "No one can order to kill," said former minister Rocco Buttiglione, a devout Catholic.

Welby's lawyers argue that doctors, by their own code of ethics, have no right to keep him alive against his wishes and that doing so amounts to what is known in Italy as "accanimento terapeutico" – forcefully administering life-sustaining treatment that does not cure the patient's illness.

They based their appeal on an article of Italy's constitution stating that no one can be forced to accept a specific medical treatment.

Doctors across Italy have said they are ready to help Mr Welby die. Mr Welby's own doctor, however, says that if he removed the respirator, he would then be obliged to resuscitate him.

The case has divided Mr Prodi's coalition, which ranges from Catholic moderates to communists, and sparked accusations by the centre right that the government wants to legalise euthanasia.

Doctors who perform euthanasia in Italy can face prison terms of up to 15 years. The Roman Catholic Church forbids it.

**niky** · December 17th, 2006 02:33 PM

A man's life is his own, to do with what he will.

Just as a government has no right to take the life of a man who is no danger to other men, it doesn't have the right to deny him death, either.

**Zeus** · December 18th, 2006 12:32 PM

I'm pro-Euthanasia, pag hirap na yung tao at gusto na mamatay bakit hindi

**cutedoc** · December 18th, 2006 01:55 PM

it is a mistake to kill or take away someone elses life, its unchristian to do such act, however if you be in the shoes of the person in that death bed you will surely say yes to mercy killing.

the patient or the relative or the person to be called upon emergency has the final say if the patient would have a will of DNR(do not ressucitate), it would mean that if his heart failed to pump, no ressucitate should be perform to revive the patient

**istan** · December 18th, 2006 02:13 PM

I say, just let him go. He's adult enough to decide for himself.
Although, for those religous and against it. If possible, let him do it himself. Provide a button somewhere, where he can press if he decides to die.

**oliver1013** · December 18th, 2006 02:17 PM

Hmmmm medyo komplikado to ah....

**XTO** · December 18th, 2006 02:21 PM

Removing life support is not basically an act of euthanasia. It is numerously done here in Phil. hospitals wherein relatives of the patient supported by machines agreed to sign a waiver requested from the attending physician. Euthanasia is an act of introducing a life cutting medications to the patient’s body to lessen the sufferings and agony.

**XTO** · December 18th, 2006 02:22 PM

sorry triple posts.

**XTO** · December 18th, 2006 02:24 PM

sorry triple posts.

**XTO** · December 18th, 2006 02:26 PM

Removing life support is not basically an act of euthanasia. It is numerously done here in Phil. hospitals wherein relatives of the patient supported by machines agreed to sign a waiver requested from the attending physician. Euthanasia is an act of introducing a life cutting medications to the patient’s body to end the agony and sufferings. I'm strongly against this.