Woman at centre of Italy’s euthanasia controversy dies

ELUANA ENGLARO, the comatose accident victim at the centre of a right-to-die drama gripping Italy, died yesterday as lawmakers debated a bill to force doctors to restore her life support.

Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi made the announcement, carried on Italian television, to the Senate as the chamber began debate on controversial emergency legislation aimed at keeping Englaro alive.

Doctors in Udine, northeast Italy, stopped feeding the 38-year-old woman on Friday amid a flurry of efforts to keep her from dying, with conservative prime minister Silvio Berlusconi accused of politicising the affair.