Giorgio D'Incà will be the guardian of his daughter Samantha , the 30-year-old in a vegetative state for 11 months in a health residence near Belluno. And therefore, after today's hearing in which judge Umberto Giacomelli has assigned him the task, he will have the possibility to authorize or not the treatments on his daughter, including force feeding.
A father who, together with his wife and other son, has faced a long and painful battle to be recognized the right to decide on behalf of Samy, as everyone has always called her. For months, the parents have reconstructed the will of the young woman, testifying before the magistrates and the ethics committee that her daughter had unequivocally expressed her refusal to any medical persistence if something serious happened to her.
He had done so on the occasion of a story, that of Eluana Englaro, which now appears very similar to his.
"At this stage I am not the parent, but it is as if I were Samantha, and I have to act as she would have liked. I am sure that she would not have accepted any obstinacy", said Giorgio D'Incà after the hearing, held in a video conference.
A meeting with health professionals and the ethics committee is also scheduled next week. The latter, explains D'Incà, would have already considered "forced feeding a form of therapeutic persistence". "There will be organizational times, I cannot say when the path we are going to choose will be activated", he adds, referring to the timing of future decisions. Forced feeding is an important junction because the measure does not allow the father to request the shutdown of the machines but can instead oppose the continuation of vital treatments, if the medical team establishes that hydration and artificial respiration are no longer in the interest of the patient. That is, they will not be able to change its vegetative state.
(Unioneonline / ss)
