It is always difficult to take sides on this debate. The moral aspects involved simply are not in black and white.

Italy does not permit euthanasia. Patients have a right to refuse treatment, but there is no law that allows them to give advance directions on their treatment if became incapacitated. So when Eluana Englaro , 38, fell into what her doctors called an irreversible vegetative state after a 1992 car accident, her father had to fight a decade-long court battle to allow her feeding tube to be removed.

He finally won the case and doctors cut off Englaro’s food and water last Friday. But this was vehemently opposed by the Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government who had the support of the Vatican also. They put forth an emergency bill before parliament, prohibiting the suspension of food and water for patients who depend on them.

Ironically, when the Bill was being discussed, Englaro died at her clinic in northern Italy Monday night – of cardiac arrest (early reports suggest).

This has not deterred the Italian Senators who said they would drop the bill meant to save her, but would draft more thorough legislation. “There’s a will to urgently agree on end-of-life legislation,” Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi said late Monday. True,indeed. As medical science takes giant leaps, we need to urgently arrive at a common agreement as to how and when a terminally ill person can rightfully be given the right to die or to live!

Via : The Associated Press