ITALY
Friday, 2 Feb 2007
Euthanasia Doctor Cleared by Italian Medical Panel
Reuters newsagency reported:-
ROME - An Italian doctor who switched off the life support of
a paralysed man at the centre of a battle over euthanasia was
cleared of wrongdoing on Thursday by a medical panel, in what
he called a victory for patients' rights.
Anaesthetist Mario Riccio divided Roman Catholic Italy by granting
Piergiorgio Welby his wish to die in December, after a battle
with muscular dystrophy that Welby described as torture. Supporters
see Riccio as a hero for ignoring a court ruling that rejected
Welby's request to have his respirator removed. Opponents said
Riccio was a criminal who should go to jail. Prosecutors are investigating
Welby's death.
After more than a month of reviewing the case, a committee of
doctors in Cremona voted unanimously that Riccio had not violated
any rules. The decision was reached late on Wednesday and announced
on Thursday. 'From the point of view of medical ethics, this decision
means that the patient's right to suspend treatment is recognised,
even if this suspension can lead to death,' Riccio told Reuters
in an interview.
Welby, 60, an eloquent advocate of euthanasia was denied a Catholic
funeral because he had asked to die, and Pope Benedict entered
the debate by saying life was sacred until its 'natural sunset'.
Riccio, who removed the respirator after giving Welby sedatives,
denied he had performed euthanasia, which is illegal in Italy
and carries a10-1 5 year jail term. Former Italian President Francesco
Cossiga formally demanded magistrates consider Riccio a murder
suspect last month but Riccio said on Thursday he had still not
been named as a suspect in the investigation into Welby's death.
'There is also no hypothesis of a crime ... as far as I know,'
he said. 'We'll have to wait for the judiciary.'
December 26 2006
Church Refuses to Bury the Man Who Wouldn't Stay Until 'Sunset'
The Times(UK) reports:
Christmas for the Vatican, and many Italian Catholics,
has been marred by controversy over the Church’s refusal
to give a Christian burial to Piergiorgio Welby, the 60-year-old
muscular dystrophy sufferer from Rome who died last week. Mr Welby,
who had been ill since he was 16, was paralysed for two decades
and for the past five years had been kept alive by a tube in his
throat that pumped air into his lungs.
For years he had publicly demanded to be allowed to die, and
on Wednesday a doctor, Mario Riccio, finally sedated him and turned
off the air pump.
The Church had always taken a stand against Mr Welby’s demands
to be allowed to die. However, no one expected the Rome diocese,
of which the Pope is bishop, to deny him a Catholic funeral rite.
The decision was seen as pointlessly cruel by many Catholics,
although others defended it as a question of principle. Those
who commit suicide are usually granted a church funeral on the
assumption that they were temporarily insane. But Mr Welby’s
campaign was apparently too sane to be forgiven by the Church.
The Church said that his “will to end his life was known,
as it had been repeated and publicly affirmed, in contrast to
Catholic doctrine”. Euthanasia in Italy can be punished by
up to 15 years in prison.
A lay funeral was held on Sunday in the piazza outside Mr Welby’s
parish church, where his family had hoped to conduct the ceremony.
Hundreds of people attended.
His 91-year-old mother declared: “They [the Church] continue
to insult him after his death.” Mina, his wife, said: “Dear
Piero, can’t you see this is a triumph? Even the sadness
has left me, for I feel that you are happy, that you are free.”
At the same time, the Pope addressed a crowd in St Peter’s
Square and said: “We must accept life from its beginning
to its natural sunset.” In his Christmas message yesterday,
he added: “What are we to think of those who choose death
in the belief that they are celebrating life?”
Francesca, a Roman resident who went to St Peter’s to hear
the Pope, said: “I am profoundly Catholic and I understand
the Church’s decision. But I also understand a Catholic who,
after decades of unbelievable suffering, decides to return to
the Lord.
In normal circumstances, nobody would have objected to Welby
being allowed to die. But the fact that it became a political
issue, echoed by the media, pushed the Church to this harsh decision.”
Giovanna, a young mother with her husband, Ugo, and six-week-old
baby, Giuseppe, agreed. “The Church’s decision was shabby
and cruel,” she said. “Welby had suffered so much —
what right does the Church have to disrespect him in his final
choice?”
Francesco, who runs one of the many souvenir shops around the
piazza, was more explicit: “The Church should change, on
this subject as well as on things like condoms to stop Aids in
Africa. Today the priests have a bad conscience.”
However, Paolo, a traffic policeman on duty, said: “The
Church has its rules, and the Church did what it had to do to
make sure these rules continue to be respected.”
by Paul Bompard in Rome
December 2006
More Support for Euthanasia.
The number of Italians who approve of euthanasia
is rising, according to the 40th annual report on the social situation
of Italy by Censis (Centro Studi Investimenti Sociali), published
at the beginning of December.
Now 57 per cent of Italians feel that patients with incurable
diseases, or close family members of those patients, have the
right to ask for the interruption of medical treatment, as against
50 per cent in 2003. 43 per cent still remain insistent that all
possible should be done to prolong the patients lives.
As to abortion, 59.8 per cent of Italian women maintain that
they should have the right to abortion on demand.
Read euthanasia news and developments from
Australia
