The case of Eluana, SC, with Decision No. 21748 of 16/10/2007, said: " The judge's decision, given the involvement in the case of the right to life as the highest good, may be the only purpose of the authorization A - when the vegetative state is, according to a rigorous clinical appreciation, irreversible and there is no medical basis, according to internationally accepted scientific standards, to give the impression that the person has the slightest chance of some, albeit weak, recovery of consciousness and return to a perception of the outside world and B - provided that application is really expressive, based on evidence clear, convincing and consistent, the voice of the represented , comes from his personality, his lifestyle and his beliefs, corresponding to his way of thinking, before falling into unconsciousness, the very idea of \u200b\u200bhuman dignity.
When the one or the other condition is lacking, the court must grant permission, then having to be given preference to the unconditional right to life, regardless of the degree of health, autonomy and capacity for discernment of the subject concerned by the perception that others are likely to affect the quality of life itself, as well as from mere utilitarian logic of costs and benefits .
seems to me that the condition under paragraph A (a state of irreversibility), according to current scientific knowledge, not be ascertained absolutely, so much so that, for some time, the term "irreversible" has been replaced with "persistent" . In addition, to enable a final decision in this regard, it should perform an autopsy and, therefore, post-mortem on the patient, because only such an examination could provide a proper evaluation of the extent and quality of brain damage.
The condition under B, requires the acquisition, the acts of the process, all the evidence as proof of personalities, lifestyles and beliefs of the patient.
I wonder if, in this case, the request has been taking all the evidence from witnesses and any relevant documents to reconstruct the personalities, lifestyles and beliefs of Eluana or whether, instead, only a fraction of such evidence is sought and gained.
Mr. Alessandro Reggiani
