Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and others on the Italian right have had much to say recently about various medical matters.
Two stories have commanded considerable mainstream print and electronic media coverage. The first concerned Eluana Englaro (kept artificially "alive" against the wishes of her family), the second a new law that obliges health professionals to report suspected "clandestini" ("illegal" immigrants) to police.
In 1992, 19-year-old Englaro was involved in a car accident that left her in a permanently vegetative state on life support.
After taking into account Englaro's brain-dead condition, her father, Beppino Englaro, decided that the feeding and hydration apparatus to which she had been connected should be removed.
This, he argued, would allow Englaro to die with dignity — her stated wish.
Prior to her tragic accident, Englaro had seen a friend waste away on life support for years and had instructed her father that, should she ever end up in such a living-death situation, he should allow her to die naturally.
However, local authorities blocked the move, sparking years of controversy and litigation. Some courts ruled against Beppino, and others in favour.
In November 2008, following yet another hearing, Italy's Final court of appeal decided that Englaro's legal guardian had the indisputable right to disconnect her life support equipment.
Polling has consistently indicated majority support for the stance taken by Englaro's father, despite vociferous condemnation by the Vatican hierarchy of the court's ruling.
On February 6, Berlusconi responded to the controversy in a typically opportunistic fashion — issuing an executive decree to force medical authorities to continue "treating" her.
Representatives of left and centre-left parties were quick to point out that the prime minister's move represented a quasi-dictatorial subversion of the constitution and effectively a suspension of the rule of law.
President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign the decree, citing its unconstitutional nature.
Berlusconi tried to take the moral high ground by claiming that Englaro had to be "rescued" as she was still "in the condition to have babies", a remark whose misogynistic implications outraged many.
After 17 years on life support, Englaro died in a Udine hospital on February 9.
Berlusconi and other so-called "pro-life" figures are unwilling to allow the Englaro family to proceed with the burial of their daughter.
Instead, they are demanding an autopsy — a demand that serves no purpose other than to parade their ultra-conservative and dehumanising ideology.
If Italian right-wingers were consistent in their professed veneration for the sanctity of human life, their response to the Englaro case might be charitably regarded as misguided zeal.
There is, however, precious little regard for the sanctity of human life in the new "security" laws — a contradiction revealing the self-serving hypocrisy underlying Berlusconi's cant.
Initiated by the far-right Northern League and championed by Berlusconi, a so-called "security package" was approved by the Italian Senate on February 6.
Among the many neo-fascist, anti-Roma and anti-immigrant measures contained in the package is a provision that forces doctors to denounce "illegal immigrants".
The aim of this measure is to reverse Article 35 of the immigration law, which stipulates that persons not in possession of a current visa cannot be reported to authorities unless there is a serious crime involved.
It is patently obvious that this new provision (which represents a clear violation of the Hippocratic oath) will result in widespread suffering and even death among the most marginalised and vulnerable sectors of society.
Hundreds of thousands of people will inevitably delay seeking treatment out of fear that they and their families will be subjected to official persecution as a consequence.
In response to the security package, several medical associations have joined forces to launch a resistance campaign entitled "We are doctors and nurses, not spies".
According to Andrea Pontiroli, a representative of Doctors Without Borders in Italy, "immigrants are already more reluctant than others to go to hospital … We think this amendment would make them even more scared and reluctant, posing a serious threat to their own health but also increasing the risk of contagion."
Considered together, the Englaro case and the odious security package demonstrate the distorted priorities of Berlusconi's ideology — ongoing medical treatment for a deceased individual who is clearly beyond needing it, coupled with no medical treatment for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable living individuals who do.
In both cases, human dignity is the victim.