An Italian tragedy comes to an end

The past few weeks in Italy have seen the circus of mediocrity set up around the tragic state of a 38-year old woman, Eluana Englaro, who has been in a permanent vegetative state for 17 years. As her father and proxy fought in the legal channels for the right to refuse forced feeding and hydration, the political majority exploited the situation.

The definitive sentence of the highest court in Italy, the Cassation, affirmed the right to refuse treatment, the father's right as proxy and Eluana's "implied will" to refuse treatment should such a situation arise. The Government attempted all sorts of tactics: threats (revocation of a clinic's license to practice), harassment (back-to-back police inspections), emergency decree to prohibit all interruptions of feeding (refused by the President as not responding to urgency criteria) and, finally, an ad-hoc law rushed through parliament with the same contents.

The unconstitutionality and sheer stupidity of those moves are evident to everyone. Denying patients' free choice of treatment is as stupid as attempting to overrule a Supreme Court sentence by legislative action. However, as in a final expression of her (proven) refusal to be coerced, Ms. Englaro defied neurologists' prognoses and died an hour ago, a mere four days after her artificial feeding was interrupted.

This is a human tragedy first and foremost, and I for one will not join in my compatriots' childish bickering. It is disappointing to see the supposed leaders of a nation grossly unable to maintain any degree of composture and maturity required to debate and face issues of a human death and great ethical dilemmas such as patient freedom.

This case was grey, but the shameful protagonism display that followed vindicates, in my eyes, the efforts of a father who first sought to bring his daughter back to consciousness and then to take her out of her bodily grave when all hope was lost. He fought a bitter and excruciating court battle, and won it solely on the strength of scientific and personality arguments. His courage is to be admired.