Peter Popham: Double standards at the Vatican

One of the bravest men in Italy was this week granted "a way out of hell", as he put it – only to find there was another hell right next door.

When Beppino Englaro's daughter Eluana was involved in a car crash nearly 17 years ago she went into a coma, and has been in an "irreversible vegetative state" ever since.

Beppino says his daughter died the night of the crash; for the past 10 years he has been fighting in the courts for the right to remove her feeding tubes and "let nature take its course". On Friday, Italy's Supreme Court finally said he could. But the Church continues to do everything in its power to thwart him.

Now we hear that the hospice in Udine which had agreed to host Eluana during her final days has had a change of heart. So in the end Mr Englaro may have to take his daughter abroad – the obvious choice is Switzerland – to die.

For the church the issue is simple: as long as there is life it must be preserved. But advances in medical science mean that today, life functions can be sustained long after consciousness has faded forever.

If he had accepted life in that mechanical sense as an obligation, Pope Benedict's predecessor might still be with us, though he would be as incapable as Eluana Englaro of any of the functions that give life meaning.

But when it came to the crunch and he was offered the choice of returning to hospital for further treatment or remaining in the Vatican to die, John Paul II in his final days did not hesitate.

Eluana Englaro was not given that choice. But now, finally, Italy has decided that her loving father can take the decision on her behalf.

Venice's new tourist trap

Plan your trip to Venice well in advance, advises deputy mayor Michele Vianello. From January he plans to introduce discounts on everything from vaporetti, to hotels, to public loos for people who book ahead, and charge top dollar to impulse arrivals in the high season.

It's a cautious step towards charging admission to the city which had 21,604,000 visitors last year, and which would love to slow the flow and increase revenue at the same time.

Italy's incurable sickness

While Eluana Englaro lingers in her hospital in Lecco, at the other end of the country the hospitals and waiting rooms are full of phantoms.

Sicily's patient lists are padded with the names of 51,287 dead citizens, some of whom passed away 35 years ago. The cost to the state is reckoned at €14m.