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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Italian coma battle woman dies | Italian coma battle woman dies |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Eluana Englaro, the Italian woman at the centre of a right-to-die debate, has died, the health minister has said. | Eluana Englaro, the Italian woman at the centre of a right-to-die debate, has died, the health minister has said. |
| Maurizio Sacconi made the announcement in Italy's Senate as politicians were debating a law that would have forced doctors to continue feeding her. | |
| Ms Englaro, 38, had been in a persistent vegetative state since being injured in a car crash in 1992. | |
| Doctors at a private clinic in the northern city of Udine had been withholding her food since Friday. | Doctors at a private clinic in the northern city of Udine had been withholding her food since Friday. |
| They had earlier said Ms Englaro might live for another two weeks. | They had earlier said Ms Englaro might live for another two weeks. |
| The Vatican, which had described the decision to let Ms Englaro die as "abominable", asked for God's forgiveness for those responsible. | |
| "May the Lord welcome her and forgive those who led her there (to her death)," Vatican health minister Javier Lozano Barragan told the ANSA news agency. | |
| Senators debating the bill designed to stop her feeding tubes being removed observed a minute's silence when the news was read out in the chamber. | |
| Ms Englaro's father, Beppino, had been battling with the courts in Italy to let his daughter die since 1999, insisting it was her wish. | Ms Englaro's father, Beppino, had been battling with the courts in Italy to let his daughter die since 1999, insisting it was her wish. |
| Court ruling | |
| In July, a court in Milan ruled that doctors had proved Ms Englaro's coma was irreversible. It also accepted that, before the accident, she had expressed a preference for dying over being kept alive artificially. | |
| State prosecutors appealed against the ruling, but the Court of Cassation in Rome ruled the challenge inadmissible in November. | |
| Pro-life activists have staged a vigil outside La Quiete clinic in Udine | |
| The Italian health ministry subsequently issued an order barring all hospitals in the region from withdrawing Ms Englaro's life support, but this was overruled by a court in Milan on 21 January. | |
| Italy's centre-right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi drafted a decree last week to prevent doctors from letting her die, but President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign it. | Italy's centre-right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi drafted a decree last week to prevent doctors from letting her die, but President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign it. |
| The government's move sparked fury among centre-left opposition politicians, who accused it of trying to exploit the case. | The government's move sparked fury among centre-left opposition politicians, who accused it of trying to exploit the case. |
| Ms Englaro was previously cared for at a church-run hospital in Lecco, but was transferred to La Quiete clinic in Udine last week, after it said it would receive her and allow her to die. | Ms Englaro was previously cared for at a church-run hospital in Lecco, but was transferred to La Quiete clinic in Udine last week, after it said it would receive her and allow her to die. |
| Italy does not allow euthanasia. Patients have a right to refuse treatment, but they are not allowed to give advance directions on the treatment they wish to receive if they become unconscious. | Italy does not allow euthanasia. Patients have a right to refuse treatment, but they are not allowed to give advance directions on the treatment they wish to receive if they become unconscious. |