By Liz Townsend

Eluana Englaro, 37, who has been in a comatose state since a bicycle accident in 1992, has been condemned to death by starvation and dehydration by Italy's highest court. But although the Court of Cassation ruled November 13 in favor of her father's request for her life support to be removed, all health care providers in the region have so far refused to assist, according to the London Times.

The court's ruling upheld a July appeals court decision. Based on testimony from her father and a friend about brief comments she had made, the appeals court had decided that Englaro would not want to be kept alive artificially, according to Agence France-Presse.

Italian law forbids euthanasia, although patients can refuse medical treatment, the Associated Press reported. The court used the testimony as proof of her wishes to have life support removed, even though she can no longer communicate.

Englaro is under the care of nuns at Blessed Luigi Talamoni clinic at Lecco in northern Italy. Writing to L'Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference, they made it clear that they will not help to kill their patient. "Our hope, and that of many like us, is that the death by hunger and thirst of Eluana, and others in her condition, will not be carried out," the nuns wrote.

"If there are those who consider her dead, let Eluana remain with us, who feel she is alive."
Other health care officials insisted they would not take Englaro's life. "Our hospitals are places of life, not death," Vladimiro Kosic, head of health for the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, told the Times.

Many have pointed to parallels between Englaro and Terri Schiavo. Both women were able to breathe on their own but required assistance in feeding and nutrition. A family member in both cases sought to stop giving them nutrition and hydration, and courts agreed on the basis that their conditions were "irreversible," despite others' claims that they deserved to receive basic care.

Supporters of Englaro's right to life are trying to continue the legal battle to prevent her from meeting the same fate as Terri Schiavo, who died by starvation and dehydration in March 2005.

Pro-life groups in Italy said they would file an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights, the Times reported.

The Roman Catholic Church has also been outspoken in its support for Eluana Englaro. "Life is sacred, the right to die does not exist," Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, told Italian newspaper La Stampa. "To stop giving food and drink to Eluana is tantamount to committing murder. It means letting her die of hunger and thirst, condemning her to a monstrous end."

Part Three -- More Sympathetic Coverage of Assisted Suicide in Great Britain
Part One -- Two More Studies Provide More Evidence Abortion Hurts Women