| Eluana Englaro, chronicle of a death foretold: ethical considerations on the recent right-to-die case in Italy. | |
| | |
MedLine Citation:
|
PMID: 20439332 Owner: NLM Status: In-Process |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
|
In 1992, Eluana Englaro was involved in a car accident in Italy that eventually left her in a permanent vegetative state requiring artificial nutrition and hydration. This paper, after briefly reviewing Eluana's case, gives a chronicle of Eluana last months until her death on 9 February 2009, and discusses the right-to-die controversy in Italy. For many years, Mr Englaro, Eluana's father, would litigate to enforce what he considered to be his daughter's wish to discontinue life-prolonging treatment. In July 2008, the Court of Appeal of Milan has given its authorization for artificial life support to be withdrawn. This ruling sparked a crusade, led by the government and the Vatican, against the court and Eluana's father, which included insinuations that the latter was murdering his daughter. Public opinion has overwhelmingly been sympathetic to the father's difficult decision, in stark contrast to the reactionary stance taken by the government. With the notable advances of medicine, doctors are increasingly faced with ethical issues. The vegetative state is just one of the many clinical conditions that obligate health professionals to reflect on ethical matters. The withdrawal of life-supporting care, and of artificial nutrition and hydration in particular in permanent vegetative state patients remains a measure which violates a tradition and a consolidated practice. It was thus inevitable that it would create great controversy. We should work towards making a decision process that ensures that continuation or suspension of artificial nutrition and hydration follows an explicit procedure, promoting the sharing and respect of the diverse moral responsibility of family members, nursing and medical staff. |
| | |
Authors:
|
Marco Luchetti |
Publication Detail:
|
Type: Journal Article Date: 2010-05-03 |
Journal Detail:
|
Title: Journal of medical ethics Volume: 36 ISSN: 1473-4257 ISO Abbreviation: J Med Ethics Publication Date: 2010 Jun |
Date Detail:
|
Created Date: 2010-06-10 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
|
Nlm Unique ID: 7513619 Medline TA: J Med Ethics Country: England |
Other Details:
|
Languages: eng Pagination: 333-5 Citation Subset: E; IM |
Affiliation:
|
Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care, A Manzoni General Hospital, Via dell'Eremo 9/11, Lecco, Italy. m.luchetti@fastwebnet.it |
Export Citation:
|
APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
|
|
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Previous Document: Understanding general practitioners' conflicts of interests and the paramountcy principle in safegua...
Next Document: Evaluating end of life practices in ten Brazilian paediatric and adult intensive care units.