Italian Woman in Coma Dies

Eluana Englaro, the 38-year-old comatose Italian woman whose feeding tube was removed late last week, has died :

Maurizio Sacconi made the announcement in Italy’s Senate as politicians were debating a law that would have forced doctors to continue feeding her . . . .

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.

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.

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has harshly criticized the country’s president, Giorgio Napolitano, for his involvement in the case:

Mr Berlusconi said this amounted to euthanasia, which is illegal in Italy, and blamed Italy’s leftist President Giorgio Napolitano for rejecting an emergency decree intended to force doctors to resume feeding her.

“Eluana did not die a natural death, she was killed,” the Prime Minister told Libero newspaper.