ROME , Italy -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- An Italian woman who had been in a coma for 17 years and whose right-to-die case was being debated in the Italian Parliament has died days after doctors began removing her feeding tube . A portrait of Eluana Englaro . She was in a vegetative state for nearly 17 years . The speaker of the Italian Senate announced the death of Eluana Englaro , 37 , Monday night , then called for a moment of silence in the chamber . Even as the silence ended , one legislator declared , `` She has not died -- she was killed , '' prompting other right-to-die opponents to join in with calls of `` Murderers ! '' Englaro had been in a vegetative state for 17 years , after suffering what doctors determined to be irreversible brain damage in a 1992 car crash , when she was 20 years old . For years , Englaro 's father , Beppino , fought to have her feeding tube removed , saying it would be a dignified end to his daughter 's life . He said that before the crash his daughter visited a friend who was in a coma and told him she did n't want the same thing to happen to her if she were ever in the same state . Confirming his daughter 's death Monday , Beppino Englaro told Italian media : `` Yes , she is no longer with us , but I do n't want to say anything further . I need to be left alone . '' But the intense debate swirling around her case will go on . Watch as Italians protest against her death '' When Englaro 's death was announced , the Senate was debating a proposed law that would require doctors to provide nourishment to all incapacitated patients , and that would have forced doctors to resume feeding Englaro through tubes . Debate on that proposal as it would affect other patients is likely to continue in Parliament . Last year , a court ruled that the feeding tube could be removed , and Italy 's high court upheld the ruling on appeal . Englaro was transferred last week to a private clinic , where the removal process began Friday -- even as the Senate took up a debate aimed at reversing that process . A decree aimed at preventing doctors from completely removing the feeding tube was passed unanimously Friday by Italy 's Council of Ministers , with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi leading the effort . `` I will do everything I can to save her life , '' Berlusconi said . `` We have to do everything possible to stop a person from dying . '' But President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign the decree . According to a statement from Napolitano 's office , `` An emergency decree can not be in contrast with a court decision . '' The case has been a controversial one in Italy , a heavily Catholic country where the Vatican has great influence . Earlier this month , Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims that `` euthanasia is a false solution to suffering . '' Monsignor Elio Sgreccia , president emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life , said Friday that Englaro had the right to be kept alive . `` It is the duty of the doctors , of society , and of the political institutions to administer her essential foods to keep her alive . No one has the right to take her life away from her , '' he said . Euthanasia is illegal in Italy , but patients have the right to refuse treatment . It is on that basis that Englaro argued his daughter should be allowed to die , because some time before her accident she had expressed the wish not to be kept alive while in a coma -- indirectly refusing treatment , he said .