Italy

Berlusconi and president battle over right-to-die

Article published on the 2009-02-07 Latest update 2009-02-07 14:50 TU

Undated photo of Eluana Englaro
(Credit: Reuters)

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and President Giorgio Napolitano are engaging in a war of wills in Rome as Napolitano has refused to sign an emergency decree to stop the mercy killing of Eluana Englaro, who has been in a vegetative state for 18 years. Berlusconi, using the Italian constitution as leverage, has vowed that the measure will be passed within three days.

Euthanasia is illegal in Italy, which is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, but patients have the right to refuse care.

Berlusconi said he is  concentrating on this case because he says he knows what the majority of Italians want. "It appears that he wants to keep the Church happy. The Catholic voters are important in this country," said correspondent Sabina Castelfranco.

Englaro, 38, has been in a coma since January 1992 after a traffic accident.

Englaro's father won a court case on 13 September that ruled in favour of her right to die, but had difficulty in trying to find a hospital in Udine, in the north of the country, that would oversee the process.

On Friday, she was transferred to another hospital where doctors had begun reducing her artificial feeding. They have announced that her feeding tubes would be removed by Tuesday so she can die peacefully.

This issue has split Italians as various demonstrations have shown support for Englaro's right to die, while others, like the Catholic Church, believe that the 38-year-old should be kept in a vegatative state until her natural death.

People have signed petitions on facebook and other social networking sites in support of euthanasia and Napolitano's decision not to sign the decree. Their efforts are culminating in a huge demonstration organised by the Italian Green Party outside Chigi Palace in Rome on Saturday, the building where the prime minister and his cabinet meet.