The neurologist of a woman trapped in a permanent vegetative state for almost 17 years on Tuesday ruled out the possibility that she might be able to be fed by natural means.
Carlo Alberto Defanti dismissed claims by another neurologist, Giuliano Dolce, published in the Catholic daily Avvenire, that 38-year-old Eluana Englaro is able to swallow and therefore might be able to be eat and drink normally.
Defanti said the swallowing reflex was ''normal'' in patients in a permanent vegetative state and that it was ''not strong enough to permit complete feeding by mouth''.
He added that his colleague was ''grasping at straws''.
Dolce had argued that if Eluana could be fed by natural means, doctors would have a duty to keep the woman alive despite a definitive right-to-die ruling that allows them to remove her feeding tube.
