By Liz Townsend

Editor's note. As most of you may have already noticed, there is now a "share" link directly above the title of this and every other TN&V piece. This allows you to forward this edition to any of a host of social networks. So, for example, if you have a Facebook account, you can post TN&V on your page for your friends to see. They, in turn, can post it on their Facebook account. And so forth. This is very exciting. Part Two is an look at yesterday's meeting between the Pope and pro-abortion Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.)

Despite last-minute attempts by Italian legislators to reverse a court order that allowed removal of her life support, 38-year-old Eluana Englaro died of cardiac failure due to dehydration February 9, three days after doctors stopped giving her food and fluids, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"They have killed an innocent person who was incapable of defending herself," said Roman Catholic Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Life is a gift of God and they had no right to take away that of Eluana."

Parallels to Terri Schiavo's case in America are unmistakable. Both women suffered severe brain injuries and needed assistance in the basic needs of food and water, but could breathe on their own. Certain family members of each brought court cases asserting that the women would have wanted to die, while others rejected their claims and insisted that they had the right to live.

Terri Schiavo's family expressed their sorrow at Eluana's death. Citing Pope John Paul II's plea that "we must save ourselves from sinking into a 'culture of death,'" her brother Bobby Schindler said, "Sadly, Eluana's death again reminds us of the pope's words. Withholding her food and water--her most basic care--so that she would die, is really about us and how we are going to care for those who need our love and compassion to live."

Eluana Englaro suffered severe injuries in a 1992 bicycle accident. Her father, Beppino, asked the courts in 1999 to allow him to remove her food and fluids. While several courts rejected his request, in July 2008 an appeals court ruled that Eluana's "persistent vegetative state" was "irreversible," AFP reported. The court also decided that she "would have preferred to die than being kept alive on artificial support," based on testimony from her father and a friend.

Italian law forbids euthanasia, although patients can refuse medical treatment, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The court used the testimony as proof of Eluana's wishes to have life support removed, even though she could no longer communicate. Italy's highest court upheld the ruling in November.

The nuns who had cared for Eluana for years refused to have any part in her death. "If there are those who consider her dead, let Eluana remain with us, who feel she is alive," the nuns wrote to L'Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference.

However, the La Quiete clinic in Udine eventually agreed to carry out the court order and Eluana was transferred there February 3, according to the AP. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other legislators tried to save Eluana by passing an emergency measure February 6 declaring that food and fluids could not be removed. However, President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign the bill, the AP reported.

Doctors at La Quiete clinic stopped providing food and hydration to Eluana that same day. As the Italian Senate began debate on another bill that would protect disabled people from removal of basic needs, it was announced that Eluana had died, according to the New York Times.

Legislators said they would continue to try to pass the bill. Berlusconi told an Italian television station that it would "forbid any sort of euthanasia" and ban the removal of food and fluids from people "unable to take care of themselves," according to ANSA news service.

On his blog, bioethicist Wesley Smith, who continues to patiently debunk the myth that a person who is starved and dehydrated experiences a "peaceful death," quoted from an English translation of an Italian newspaper's account of Eluana's death:

Twenty-four hours later came the first complications. On Saturday afternoon, Eluana had difficulty breathing and her mucous membranes were dry. Nurses sprayed water with a nebuliser. On Sunday, the situation got worse. The nurses turned her over every two hours and sprayed her mucous membranes with more water. Marinella Chirico, a RAI journalist who saw Eluana, reported that she was "unrecognisable, there are abrasions on her ears". Eluana was already under sedation with Delorazepam, injected subcutaneously. On Monday, her condition deteriorated rapidly. The distress log opens at one o'clock in the morning. "Eluana is lying on her left side"; "at 4 a.m. on her right side"; at 8 a.m. she "is again supine". "At 10.15 a.m., the mucous membranes are again dry" and the nurses moistened her lips with water droplets. Sedation continued. That afternoon, Eluana's temperature rose. She was weak, breathing with extreme difficulty and still under sedation. She had no more urine. At 7.35 p.m., Eluana's heart stopped beating. The clinic declared cardiac arrest caused by renal failure.

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Part Two -- A More In-Depth Account of the Meeting Between Pope Benedict and Nancy Pelosi...