Published 10 February 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b574
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b574

News

Doctors announce death of woman at centre of Italian "right to die" case

¹ Milan

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Eluana Englaro, the 38 year old Italian woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for the past 17 years, died earlier this week just three days after artificial hydration and nutrition were withdrawn in accordance with a decision by a Milan court.

The case caused an unprecedented institutional conflict in Italy, after the president of the republic, Giorgio Napolitano, refused to sign an emergency decree unanimously approved by the government to prevent her death.

The centre right majority struggled to rush through a new law "to save the life of a woman who could even bear a child and who is in a vegetative state that could change," the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said in a press conference.

Currently patients in Italy have a right to refuse treatment, but there is no law about advance directives. However, despite the absence of clarity on such directives, a court in . . . [Full text of this article]

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