Council of State rules Lombardy

(ANSA) - Rome, June 21 - The Council of State, Italy's top administrative court, ruled on Wednesday that the Region of Lombardy must pay 133,000 euros in damages to Beppino Englaro, the father of Eluana Englaro, who was in a vegetative state for 17 years and died after her artificial nutrition was suspended. The region had refused to pay for Eluana's care in a structure that would suspend her nutrition and hydration at her father's request. She was thus transferred from a structure in Lecco, in the Lombardy region, to one in Udine, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, where she died on February 9, 2009. The Council of State ruled that Lombardy should have allowed Englaro to pull the plug on Eluana, as Friuli later did. Eluana's case spurred a right-to-die debate that gripped Italy, pitting conservative politicians including then premier Silvio Berlusconi and the Catholic Church against liberals and right-to-die activists.