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Italians united on pulling the plug, the rule of law still far away: She has been dubbed "the Italian Terry Schiavo": Eluana Englaro, a woman in a persistent vegetative state after a car crash in 1992, whose father is strenuously fighting for the right to pull the plug. She was 20 years old when the accident devastated her brain without taking her life. Her body recovered from severe injuries; she breathes by herself but she shows no cortex activity, can't eat or drink and she is fed through a tube from her nose.

"My daughter would have never accepted to live like that", says Beppino Englaro, an engineer from Lecco in the northern Italy, who is pursuing a harsh legal battle to obtain the right to "pull the plug", in this case the nasogastric tube that keeps his daughter alive with a mix of food, water and antibiotics. "Eluana was deeply touched by the story of Leonardo David", the Italian skier that fell in a coma after the pre-olimpic downhill at Lake Placid in march 1979 and died without recovering conscience six years later, her father says. "Since then, she has always said she would rather prefer to die".

A few weeks before hers, two of her friends had a car accident: one died immediately while the other fell in coma. Eluana Englaro wrote her thoughts about life and death in a class composition and defended her point of vue with teachers in the nuns college and with intimate friends. Unfortunately, she had to become a testimonial of the live will in the years thereafter.

In Italy the law does not condone euthanasia and the question about the legitimacy of pulling the plug and also of refusing medical treatments is still a matter of harsh debate between "pro-life" and "pro-choice". Polls indicate that a large majority, 68,5% according to the Eurispes Institute, is in favor of the right of self decision, euthanasia and the approval of the "living will". But the politicians, both right and left wing (with the notable exception of the "Italian Radicals") are not eager to take the stand on this matter, especially because they would have to challenge the Catholic Church. Officially, also the Vatican condemns therapeutic obstinacy, but feeding of food, water and drugs apparently does not fit in the category.

In 2006 another case made the front page when Piergiorgio Welby, a man severely crippled by muscular dystrophy, asked the Courts the right to cut off his endotracheal intubation and die. Sustained by prominent liberal members of the European Parliament, Mr. Marco Pannella and Mr. Marco Cappato, from the "Radicali Italiani" party of which Welby himself was a militant, he wrote an open letter to the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, asking the right to end his life by his own choice: "I am not asking to die with dignity, because there may be dignity in life but there is no dignity in death. I just want to decide for myself and I do not want to suffer anymore". Only after six months of legal procedures the Rome Court of Appeal finally stated that he had the right to take the decision. The Catholic Church refused the family the religious funeral, estimating his death an act of suicide. The anesthesiologist who helped him with analgesic medications before the tube was pulled from his lungs was charged with murder and only recently has been cleared of the accusation.

And then there was the story of Giovanni Nuvoli, a salesman from Sardinia and a former soccer referee, affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disorder known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The Courts rejected his demand to pull the plug of the breathing machine and his last resort was to refuse food and water, starving to death after eight days of agony.

Is the case of Eluana Englaro heading to an end after the decision of the Milan judges to give green light to the suspension of the feeding? It is hard to believe and difficult to predict.

Senators of the right wing coalition in power have pushed the case before the Italian Supreme Court, arguing that the civil judges gave a "creative decision" that undermines the prerogatives of the Parliament: it's a case of conflict of powers. Our judicial system is not one of common law and the judges are not entitled to take such a decision in the "vacuum" of the law, states a motion approved by the Senate.

As a matter of facts, the judges of the Court of Appeal of Milan wrote a decision on the basis of the Constitution and the civil code; but they also recall the "Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine", the European framework for the rights of patients on matters such as informed consent, living will and the refuse of medical treatments. Italy is part of the Covenant and the Parliament has accepted the document already, but the final seal of ratification is yet to come.

The Court decision on Eluana Englaro is not a final one, as the office of the District Attorney has sixty days to file for another appeal. If Eluana's father seizes the moment to grant a "natural end" to his daughter's life, he could possibly be charged with murder and face a sentence of up to fifteen years in jail.

"Eluana died 16 years ago, now is the time to let her body go", says Beppino Englaro. The President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Bagnasco, opposes that "Eluana has not to die because of a sentence". Religious activists, following the appeal published by Il Foglio a right-wing newspaper, started to deposit bottles of water in front of the Milan Duomo: "Acqua per Eluana", Water for Eluana. The nuns at the hospice where the woman lays unconscious in a bed have asked her father to let them adopt her for life. In spite of all clinical observations -- her body does not feel pain, her contractions are pure reflexes -- the nun that nurses Eluana has declared, "She is in good health and all the physiological functions are good. She is beautiful".

Eluana's living will, witnessed under oath by her family and friends, counts less than nothing. So it is of the voice of a majority of the people, that seems unable to speak and express their political will. Politicians and mainstream parties seem detached from reality.

Eluana's body is a hostage, under strict custody by the Church, unprotected by non-existent italian laws, no judges entitled to declare "Habeas corpus tuus liber" -- Italians may be united on pulling the plug but the rule of law is still very far away.