Eluana Englaro

Eluana Englaro (25 November 1970 – 9 February 2009) was an Italian woman from Lecco, who entered a persistent vegetative state on 18 January 1992, following a car accident, and subsequently became the focus of a court battle between supporters and opponents of euthanasia.

"[1] The authorities refused his request, but the decision was finally reversed in 2009, and she died after her nutrition was withheld after she had spent seventeen years in the persistent vegetative state.

[2] The Milan Court of Appeal declared on 9 July 2008 that Eluana's father and legal guardian Beppino Englaro was allowed to suspend feeding and hydration.

In July 2008, the Italian Parliament brought a jurisdictional conflict before the Final Court of Appeal, stating that the decision was actually changing existing laws.

When the final judicial decision was handed down, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family objected to the ruling citing Eluana's humanity as cause for her to be treated with dignity and that she is not a 'vegetable'.

[8] Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi even stated that Eluana "looks fine and healthy" and "could even give birth to a child" despite the young woman being tetraplegic because of injuries sustained in the car accident.