US: A Florida court cleared the way to remove the feeding tube that sustains a severely brain-damaged woman yesterday, after congressional leaders tried to prolong her life by subpoenaing her to appear before Congress.
CNN quoted the sister of the woman, Terri Schiavo, as a saying the tube had been removed.
Ms Schiavo has been kept alive since a heart attack starved her brain of oxygen in 1990, leaving her in what the courts declared was a permanent vegetative state.
Her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, says she would not have wanted to be kept alive in that condition. In a bitterly contested seven-year court case, Mr Schiavo won permission to remove the feeding tube yesterday, which would result in his wife's death in seven to 14 days.
Republican congressional leaders made a last-minute attempt to stave that off by subpoenaing Ms Schiavo to appear before hearings and committees later in the month.
Senate majority leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said: "The Senate and the House remain dedicated to saving Terri Schiavo's life. While discussions over possible legislative remedies continue, the Senate and the House are taking action to keep her alive in the interim."
Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, are fighting to keep her alive, saying she responds to them and could improve with rehabilitation and have lobbied legislators to intervene.
Congressional leaders issued the subpoenas after failing to enact legislation allowing federal courts to review the case.
Through five years of hearings and appeals, the Florida courts have ruled in Mr Schiavo's favour and the US Supreme Court has refused three times to intervene.
The long and public dispute between Ms Schiavo's husband and parents has galvanised activists on all sides of right-to-die issue and ignited new debate about state and federal powers.
President Bush, who was in Florida yesterday to talk about social security, backed efforts to prolong her life.