papà

Exactly one year ago, after a legal struggle lasted more than a decade, Beppino Englaro interrupted the artificial feeding that was keeping his daughter alive. Eluana had been in vegetative state for 17 years following a car accident; his right to have the artificial feeding suspended had never been recognized before and he had waited for a definitive decision from the competent court, which was finally pronounced on July 9, 2008.

To prevent the father from actually interrupting the feeding, Berlusconi issued an executive order to overturn the Court of Cassation sentence. The President of the Republic refused to sign the order (that would have caused a clear institutional conflic), and Eluana was stopped from being fed.

Today, Italian newspapers open with Berlusconi's letter to the nuns who were taking care of Eluana, in which he writes to be extremely sorry for not having been able to avoid her death. 


Not a single line to the father. 

I don't know how dark a father's pain has to be to lead him to such a decision. I don't know how deep it has to be to crush any hope, any doubt that the man could have had in a decade. I don't think there's any ideology, any principle, any rational superstructure that can stand the possible joy of seeing your daughter alive and happy again. I think Beppino is the only person who can actually measure his own despair. The only person that could possibly have something to state, the only person worth listening to. 

The rest is just realpolitik small-talk. So depressing.