Italian "Terry Schiavo" Case
Man Wakes from Two-Year Coma – was Aware and Remembers Everything
Salvatore Crisafulli, 38, awoke Monday from a two-year long coma. Crisafulli was declared “nearly dead” by doctors after a serious auto accident that left him unresponsive.
His physicians, guided by modern bioethics movement that frequently rates personal autonomy above the value of life, gave up treating him and his family became his primary caregivers.
Crisafulli, a father of four, told Italian media through his brother, that he had heard and understood everything going on around him for two years and had been unable to respond. “I cried in desperation," he said.
Crisafulli’s case highlights a decision – made the same day Crisafulli “woke up,” – by the Italian National Bioethics Committee to recommend that the state must make it mandatory that such patients not be starved or dehydrated to death as in the US court-ordered death of Terri Schiavo earlier this year.
The Italian committee holds an advisory position to government equivalent to that of the President’s Council on Bioethics in the US.
The decision of the National Bioethics Committee flies in the face of the decision of many countries, Canada included, that says the delivery of food and water by any means other than mouth is “extraordinary medical treatment,” which may be withheld.
The Committee president, Francesco D’Agostino said, “To feed an unconscious patient through a tube is not a medical act. “It’s like giving a bottle to a newborn baby who can’t be nursed by its mother ... And then we reflect on the Schiavo case. The woman was left to die of starvation,” he said.
Perhaps our courts will stop taking life away when families will continue to care for their loved ones.
Salvatore Crisafulli, 38, awoke Monday from a two-year long coma. Crisafulli was declared “nearly dead” by doctors after a serious auto accident that left him unresponsive.
His physicians, guided by modern bioethics movement that frequently rates personal autonomy above the value of life, gave up treating him and his family became his primary caregivers.
Crisafulli, a father of four, told Italian media through his brother, that he had heard and understood everything going on around him for two years and had been unable to respond. “I cried in desperation," he said.
Crisafulli’s case highlights a decision – made the same day Crisafulli “woke up,” – by the Italian National Bioethics Committee to recommend that the state must make it mandatory that such patients not be starved or dehydrated to death as in the US court-ordered death of Terri Schiavo earlier this year.
The Italian committee holds an advisory position to government equivalent to that of the President’s Council on Bioethics in the US.
The decision of the National Bioethics Committee flies in the face of the decision of many countries, Canada included, that says the delivery of food and water by any means other than mouth is “extraordinary medical treatment,” which may be withheld.
The Committee president, Francesco D’Agostino said, “To feed an unconscious patient through a tube is not a medical act. “It’s like giving a bottle to a newborn baby who can’t be nursed by its mother ... And then we reflect on the Schiavo case. The woman was left to die of starvation,” he said.
Perhaps our courts will stop taking life away when families will continue to care for their loved ones.
posted by Frank Dupree at 9:57 AM
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