The woman at the center of a right-to-die battle gripping Italy died on Monday in a private clinic, ending a case that divided the nation and ignited a debate among Italian leaders and the Vatican.
Italian Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi announced the death of the woman, Eluana Englaro, 38, to senators holding an emergency session to debate a bill aimed at keeping her on a feeding tube, Italian news media reported. In response, some senators shouted: “Assassins!”
Englaro was moved last week to a private clinic in Udine, in northeast Italy, that agreed to remove the feeding tube after other public clinics refused. On Friday, doctors began reducing her nutrition intake as protesters gathered outside to pray for her.
Carlo Alberto Defanti, a neurologist who followed her case for years, said she had died suddenly of “unexpected” causes, the Corriere della Sera newspaper said. As recently as Monday morning, doctors said Englaro was in stable condition. A court is expected to decide yesterday whether an autopsy will be conducted, Italian news media said.
Englaro had been in a persistent vegetative state since a car accident in 1992. Her father fought repeatedly in court for the right to remove the tube, saying it was his daughter’s wish not to be kept alive artificially. The Catholic Church was vehemently opposed to removing Englaro’s feeding tube, saying it was tantamount to euthanasia, which is illegal in Italy.
The intense polemics and deep divisions over the case drew comparisons to the case of Terri Schiavo in the US. Schiavo was allowed to die in 2005 after a long legal battle by her husband to remove her feeding tube.
On Friday, when Englaro’s feeding tube was to be withdrawn, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Cabinet introduced an emergency measure forbidding the removal. The decree circumvented a high court decision, and Berlusconi submitted it even though Italian President Giorgio Napolitano had called it unconstitutional and damaging to the balance of powers in Italy. Napolitano said he would not sign the measure.
Instead, late on Friday, the emergency measure was drafted into a bill and the Senate was considering it on Monday when Englaro’s death was announced.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
EYEING A SOLUTION: In unusually critical remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump said he was ‘destroying Russia by not making a deal’ US President Donald Trump on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war. Trump’s warning in a social media post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
RSS