Conference against euthanasia remembers Eluana Englaro

Pro-life leaders and anti-euthanasia activists were meeting in Rome on Wednesday to remember the death of Eluana Englaro, a severely disabled woman who died after her father, was successful in having her feeding and hydration treatment removed.

The case was widely publicized as Italian politicians took opposing sides in the matter, and many Church officials pleaded for her life to be spared.

“The case of of Eluana Englaro was a clear case of there being a judicial fiat here in Italy, a little bit like the Terry Schiavo case in the United States, where the judges ruled she could be starved and dehydrated to death,” says the acting director of Human Life International’s Rome office, Joseph Meaney.

He told Vatican Radio the conference will highlight a law currently circulating the Italian Parliament which would ban all euthanasia in the country.

“Patients must be given nutrition and hydration as the minimum of ordinary care in medical treatment,” he said.

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Joseph Meaney: