On Coherence, or, How to Kill a Living Corpse

Following a car accident in 1992, Eluana Englaro, a good looking 20 year old at the time, entered a vegetative coma. Since the late nineties her dad, Beppino Englaro, has been trying to let her die. What should happen? Here's what we know:

Her state
She is alive, but in a coma. She breathes on her own, her bodily activities go on normally (e.g. menstrual cycle). She is growing old. She is fed artificially, through a naso-gastric tube. That, together with normal hygenic care, is the only type of treatment she receives.

Her prospects
... of ever opening her eyes again and living a normal life are slim. Should it happen she would find herself in a completely different world, and twice the age she was at the time of the accident.

Her wishes
Beppino Englaro states that on a visit to a friend stuck to a bed because of a car accident, Eluana expressed her will to never be kept alive in those conditions. This fact, obviously, cannot be verified, but given the circumstances, the care the father has taken of her child and his determination to act only under an enabling sentence by a judge I believe it can be assumed to be a good approximation of her own wishes.

Public or Private?
What one does with one's life is surely a public matter. If one is not able to chose for herself, and hasn't left any indications in the event of suffering a heavily debilitating accident, like Eluana's, should her next of kin decide for her? Should there be a moral code of the public conscience that applies?

My position
Whoever wants the right to make the decision, is the person who will have to sustain its consequences. In other words, if the State wants to be the bearer of the public ethics, and force a human in a vegetative state to live on, it must offer her the best care available. The decision to end the life - the irreversible decision - should not be taken by the next of kin where he or she cannot (reasonably) prove that it is what the 'patient' wants.

Two more (connected) conditions
There must be an overwhelming consensus among all doctors who visit the 'patient' that the vegetative state is virtually irreversible.
No decision to end the life ought to be taken before 5 years of the vegetative state.

One imperative
Pass a law that obliges people to express their will in advance, in the event of such a situation occurring to them.

This is not
... euthanasia, which is a whole different matter. This issue is not about killing, it is about the suspension of medical and/or basic care without which the 'patient' cannot survive.

Have your say. With respect for those who live this situation.