Pope Benedict XVI called for prayers today as part of his public opposition to the father of 17-year coma victim, who seeks the legal right to allow stopping artificial life support for his daughter
Eluana Englaro has been in a vegetative coma for seventeen years and for the past decade her father, Beppino, has sought to allow his daughter to be allowed to die a natural death. He and his daughter's friends have testified that, prior to her 1992 car accident, she clearly stated that if she was ever in a coma she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means.
The issue has become central in an Italian national controversy over euthanasia and has been the focus of a power battle between the country's two most powerful politicians. Today the Pope has entered the fray with his call to respect the coma patient's "right to dignity."
Ironically, a closely related law is called the "Death With Dignity Act" in Oregon, the one US State that allows patients to terminate their own suffering. The Oregon law's name implies that an individual's "right to dignity" should include the right to choose to end terrible pain humanely and with dignity. The pope argues that allowing death to occur naturally, as a result of removing artificial life-support, would somehow reduce a comatose patient's dignity.
Italian opinion polls on the issue are evenly divided, with 47 percent of the country supporting Ms. Englaro's right to die, 47 percent opposed, and 6 percent undecided. The Corriere della Sera newspaper today published the results of a survey that shows a significant generational difference in the distribution of opinions. Sixty percent of Italians between 18 and 24 favor allowing the removal of life-support, but of the survey participants over 55, only 38 percent support would allow her to die. Read the original article here.