ROME, ITALY - THOUSANDS rallied in Rome Thursday against what they called an 'unconstitutional' bid by Silvio Berlusconi to change the right-to-die laws, as the woman at the centre of a case that has divided Italy was laid to rest.
Former president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro led opponents of Prime Minister Berlusconi's attempt to 'save' a woman stuck in a coma for 17 years, despite her father's wish to allow doctors to let her die.
Mr Scalfaro, president from 1992 to 1999, received raucous applause at a rally called by the opposition Democratic Party when he accused Mr Berlusconi of dishonouring the constitution's 'fundamental principles of liberty, justice and the rights of individuals.' The case has torn the ultra-Roman Catholic country in two, with the Vatican standing accused of unduly influencing the Italian government - and Mr Berlusconi charged with grubby power politics.
Even Eluana Englaro's funeral in her native village of Paluzza, in the northeastern Udine region, was overshadowed by religious argument - her father Beppino bowing to family pressure to allow a religious service, but staying away from the funeral itself.
The absence of the father from the graveside was 'aimed at appeasing all the family members, some of whom are strongly attached to religious tradition and the others less so,' the family's lawyer, Vittorio Angiolini, told AFP.
Beppino Englaro had wanted a simple cremation before placing the ashes in the family vault in the Paluzza cemetery, and paid his last respects when the cortege stopped outside the family home, ANSA news agency said.
'Now you are free and you can rest in peace,' the priest said in the funeral homily. 'You are close to God and you know truth. Remain close to your mother and your father and let them feel God's presence.' In 2006, the Italian Catholic Church refused to allow a religious funeral for poet and writer Piergiorgio Welby, a muscular dystrophy sufferer who died in December 2006 after being taken off an artificial respirator.
Ms Englaro, who fell into a coma after a road accident, died aged 38 on Monday night of a heart attack, three days after her feeding was stopped at the request of her parents.
An Italian court said last year that it was satisfied Ms Englaro's coma was irreversible, and that she had clearly expressed her wish not to be kept alive artificially after a close friend encountered similar circumstances.
President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign into law an emergency decree championed by Mr Berlusconi, which would have reversed the feeding decision, declaring it unconstitutional.
The Vatican and the Italian Catholic press have labelled Englaro's death a 'crime,' while Mr Berlusconi said she 'did not die a natural death' but was 'killed.' On Monday, the Senate agreed after a heated debate to expedite work on a draft law regarding end-of-life issues that has been languishing in committee.
Italian law is currently ambiguous on such issues. While euthanasia is illegal, patients have the right to refuse care.
Celebrated Italian novelist Umberto Eco waded into the row on Thursday with an article published in the left-leaning La Repubblica daily supporting the right to die.
'Now that this young woman is dead, we can talk about these problems without fear of behaving like a stalking jackal around a suffering body,' wrote the author of the 'Name of the Rose.' Eco said if he ever found himself in a similar situation to Ms Englaro, he would want treatment to be withdrawn 'so as to avoid tension, despair, false hope' for his loved ones. -AFP
