There is a very interesting case going on in Italy right now, concerning a man named Piergiorgio Welby, a poet who has been battling muscular dystrophy for 40 years and who has been hospitalized and on a respirator for 9 years.

He’s wanting to be taken off life support and be allowed to die. And he’s been blogging about it with one hand and a pencil tapping the keys on the computer keyboard. Plus, he just got a book published, called Let Me Die. He’s ready to die now but isn’t being allowed to have himself taken off life support.

To decline forced medical treatment is allowed under Italian law, experts say, but Italy has another law that makes it a crime to assist in a death, even with consent. So a doctor could not detach the respirator without risking prosecution.

It’s also more complicated in Italy because of the influence of the Catholic Church in politics, society, and life in general. The Catholic Church has always been a very firm supporter and defender of life. That explains their opposition to abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, and contraception. So what’s the problem here? The Church is also against artificially prolonging life.

So you can’t purposefully take him off the machines because that’s assisting in his death. And yet you shouldn’t artificially prolong his life. What a conundrum! Isn’t removing artificial life support the same as assisting in death? It’s a paradox that will have to be resolved before long.

As Welby asks:

“What is natural about a hole in the belly and a pump that fills it with fats and proteins? What is natural about a body kept biologically functional with the help of artificial respirators, artificial feed, artificial hydration, artificial intestinal emptying, of death artificially postponed?”

Be sure to click the link at the top of this post to read the full story from the New York Times.

Current music: A Christmas Together, by John Denver and the Muppets

[tags]euthanasia, life support, welby[/tags]