Pressure from senior Roman Catholic clerics has provoked a constitutional crisis in Italy over the case of a father seeking the right for his daughter to die.Eluana Englaro has been in a coma for more than 16 years.
Doctors said she was in a vegetative state following an accident in 1992.
Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government yesterday passed a decree forbidding doctors to withhold food from Ms Englaro in spite of final victory in the courts by her father.
Giorgio Napolitano, Italy's president, told the government he would refuse to sign the decree, saying it was not constitutional.
Mr Berlusconi responded by saying Ms Englaro might recover and could even have a child. The prime minister said he would take the matter to parliament and force the president's hand.
The case of Ms Englaro has captured the imagination of Italy for years, with many Italians moved by the dignity of her father Beppino in pursuing his cause through the courts - in the face of opposition from officials who refused to implement the court ruling.
Doctors started to reduce feeding yesterday. They said it could take about 10 days for Ms Englaro to die.
Mr Berlusconi's coalition had been divided over the issue and wanted to remain aloof.
But politicians and commentators said pressure from senior cardinals and the Vatican obliged his government to respond, as doctors prepared to stop feeding.
The action brings fresh attention to the Catholic Church, following criticism of the Pope on Tuesday by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, for his rehabilitation of a bishop who expressed doubts in an interview about whether the Holocaust happened.
"This is a clerical dictatorship," said one former parliamentarian as secular Italians protested against the interference of the church.
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(Source: GRCN)