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Intensive Care Medicine
Published in: Intensive Care Medicine 7/2005

01-07-2005 | News

Euthanasia, therapeutic obstinacy or something else? An Italian case

Authors: Salvatore Maurizio Maggiore, Massimo Antonelli

Published in: Intensive Care Medicine | Issue 7/2005

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Excerpt

In 1998 a man entered the intensive care unit (ICU) of San Gerardo Hospital in Monza, Italy, and, after being informed about the serious condition of his wife, forced physicians and nurses to stay away using an (unloaded) gun while he disconnected his wife from the ventilator. He held her in his arms until he was convinced that she was dead (“Condannato a 6 anni per eutanasia della moglie”, La Repubblica, 20 June 2000, available at: http://​www.​repubblica.​it/​online/​societa/​eutanasia/​condanna/​condanna.​html; “Mercy killing in Milan”, BBC News, 21 June 1998, available at: http://​news.​bbc.​co.​uk/​1/​hi/​world/​europe/​117389.​stm) [1]. One week previously the 46-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of an idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, subsequently complicated by an extensive cerebral hemorrhage requiring neurosurgical removal. After the operation (on the day before her husband’s action) she was comatose and receiving high doses of barbiturates because of intracranial hypertension [1]. …
Literature
1.
Anonymous (2003) Corte di Assise d’Appello di Milano-Sezione I. Sentenza 24 Aprile–21 Giugno 2002 n. 23/02. Riv Diritto Professioni Sanitarie 6:31–50
2.
Rocker G (2003) End of life care in Canada after a murder charge in an ICU. Intensive Care Med 29:2336–2337CrossRef
3.
Ferrand E, Bachoud-Levi A-C, Rodrigues M, Maggiore S, Brun-Buisson C, Lemaire F (2001) Decision-making capacity and surrogate designation in French ICU patients. Intensive Care Med 27:1360–1364CrossRefPubMed
4.
Heyland DK, Cook DJ, Rocker GM, Dodek PM, Kutsogiannis DJ, Peters S, Tranmer JE, O’Callaghan CJ (2003) Decision-making in the ICU: perspectives of the substitute decision-maker. Intensive Care Med 29:75–82PubMed
5.
Metadata
Title
Euthanasia, therapeutic obstinacy or something else? An Italian case
Authors
Salvatore Maurizio Maggiore
Massimo Antonelli
Publication date
01-07-2005
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Intensive Care Medicine / Issue 7/2005
Print ISSN: 0342-4642
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1238
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-005-2645-x

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