Italy court deals blow to ailing man

ROME — A panel of Italian medical experts ruled Wednesday that a respirator does not constitute "extraordinary means" of keeping a gravely or terminally ill person alive, dealing a blow to a man suffering from muscular dystrophy.

Piergiorgio Welby, 60, has asked that a doctor sedate him and remove him from his respirator. A judge in Rome ruled over the weekend that while Welby has a constitutional right to refuse treatment, Italian law does not permit denying lifesaving care.

The higher health council decided that use of a respirator "does not constitute, as of now, extraordinary means" and so the device need not be removed.

Welby's pleas to legalize euthanasia have received wide coverage and prompted a nationwide debate in a country where the Roman Catholic Church wields much influence.

The Vatican forbids euthanasia, insisting life must be safeguarded from its beginning to its "natural" end. However, the church teaches there is no obligation to use "extraordinary means" if that will only prolong suffering.

Gradually paralyzed by the condition diagnosed when he was a teenager, Welby has been confined to bed for years and now can barely move his lips and eyebrows. He receives nourishment through a tube, breathes with a respirator and communicates through a voice synthesizer.

He has written a book titled, "Let Me Die."

The medical panel said Wednesday that guidelines for doctors were urgently needed to spell out what the law allows and what it does not.

Health Minister Livia Turco said she hoped making the panel's ruling public would help efforts to have "the right to refuse treatment, even if deemed necessary by the doctor, coexist with the ethical and professional duty of doctors to protect human life."

A Rome judge, Angela Salvio, ruled Saturday that Welby has a constitutional right to halt his treatment, but she noted that Italy's medical code requires doctors to maintain the life of a patient.

Physicians, she wrote, "even when faced with the request of the patient, must not carry out ... treatments aimed at causing death."

Welby's family said he has not decided if he will appeal the ruling, but magistrates have decided to challenge the decision.

A senior Vatican cardinal, in charge of health care issues, said Wednesday that doctors must define extraordinary means in Welby's case.