Thursday 21 December 2006

Piergiorgio Welby ... Italian man allowed to die

I recommend listening to Radio 4 ... you learn so much, and often the programmes focus on religious or ethical issues. There were two such stories on the PM news tonight.

The first story is about a man called Piergiorgio Welby who suffered from muscular dystrohy. "A doctor has admitted switching off the life support machine of a terminally ill Italian man who had lost a legal battle for the right to die", reads the BBC article. Italy is a predominantly Catholic country, and, as you know, euthanasia is not allowed in Catholicism (other than in cases where the Doctrine of Double Effect comes into place). However, Mr Welby's doctor denies that this is euthanasia, and instead has argued that he had fulfilled the patient's legal right to refuse treatment. There is a lot of debate about this in Italy.

Look up more details on the link below.

BBC News: Welby

1 comment:

Mrs K said...

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22122006/325/italy-church-denies-funeral-right-die-case.html

This is an update from 22 December. Mr Welby has not been allowed to have a Catholic funeral, because it is felt that this would send the wrong message to others.