The European Court of Human Rights on Monday turned down an appeal against a landmark ruling by Italy's supreme court which would allow doctors to end the life of a woman who has been in an irreversible coma for almost 17 years.
The Strasbourg court said the appeal in the Eluana Englaro case lodged by pro-life Italian organisations was inadmissable because they had no direct legal link with the woman.
The decision by Milan's appeal court, confirmed by the supreme court in November, regards ''only the people directly involved,'' it added.
The latest ruling was the last legal recourse for pro-life campaigners, who have pitted themselves against Eluana's father, Beppino Englaro, in his decade-long fight to earn the right for a dignified end to his daughter's life.
The right-to-die ruling from the Cassation Court split Italy in November, with Catholic politicians and the Vatican claiming it authorises euthanasia and libertarians hailing it as a victory for individual liberty.
As a result, Beppino Englaro has yet to find a clinic willing to remove his daughter's feeding tube and allow her to die.
The Lombardy region, where Eluana is cared for by nuns at Lecco's Beato Luigi Talamoni clinic, has always refused to offer clinics or health workers to help Eluana end her life.
Last week a public-assisted clinic in Udine in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region offered its services, but a last-minute guideline issued by Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi stating that the removal of feeding tubes from patients in a vegetative state was ''illegal'' halted her transfer from Lecco.
Sacconi also suggested that there could be ''administrative consequences'' if the clinic did not follow the guideline, which some observers claimed was a veiled threat to strip it of its funding and certification.
The Milan Appeals Court and the Constitutional Court have since said that Sacconi's guideline is not relevant to Eluana's case because of the definitive ruling in the courts.
But a stalemate remains in place after the Udine clinic asked regional authorities to back its decision following Sacconi's comments.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia's centre-right governor Renzo Tondo, who has expressed sympathy with Beppino Englaro, has nevertheless insisted that the case is a private issue between the Englaro family and the clinic.
On Monday the president of the regional council, the centre-right Northern League's Edouard Ballaman, echoed Tondo's stance that the case was ''a private matter''.
''Personally I hope that the woman continues to live, but I can't interfere with the decisions of her father,'' he said.
Other local politicians from the Northern League and the Catholic UDC meanwhile threatened a ''political crisis'' if the region did not explicitly rule out the possibility of Eluana dying in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Tondo called for reflection on Monday, hinting that significant developments in the case are unlikely over the Christmas period.
