12-year-old Spanish girl in "dignified death" debate dies

A 12-year-old girl from north-western Spain who had been at the center of a debate over a "dignified death" died on Friday just four days after doctors at the University Hospital Clinic in Santiago de Compostela stopped feeding her artificially.

The girl, known as Andrea, had been suffering from a rare degenerative illness since she was a baby and had been hospitalized for the past three months.

Last week her health deteriorated and Andrea's parents, Estela Ordonez and Antonio Lago, asked the hospital to remove her feeding tube, alleging that keeping her alive using artificial means was causing her a disproportionate amount of suffering.

The hospital originally refused to do so and received the backing of the Galician health chief, Rocio Mosquera, who said the parents were asking for "active euthanasia."

Ordonez and Lago took their case to court, while Mosquera was sacked from her post by Galician regional leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo.

The court asked for four separate reports into Andrea's condition, but on Monday evening the hospital did an about-face and agreed to remove Andrea's feeding tube, saying the change of opinion was the result of the 12-year-old's rapidly failing health. The act prompted Ordonez and Lago's lawyer to comment that Andrea's death "would be easier," than her life had been.

The case made the headlines all over Spain, a largely Catholic country, and has served to thrust the euthanasia debate back into the spotlight. Endit