ROME – Italy’s government issued an emergency decree Friday to prevent a woman who has been in a vegetative state for 17 years from having her feeding tubes disconnected, but the president said he wouldn’t sign it.

The family of Eluana Englaro, 38, vowed to go ahead and disconnect the tubes, and her nutritional intake was being reduced. She has been in a vegetative state since a 1992 car crash and two years later doctors said her condition was irreversible.

Her father won a protracted court battle to disconnect her feeding tube, which he said had been her wish, but the right-to-die debate has divided Italy and prompted direct appeals by the Vatican in this overwhelmingly Catholic nation to keep Englaro alive.

Italy does not allow euthanasia. Patients have a right to refuse treatment, but there is no law that allows them to give advance directions on what treatment they wish to receive if they become unconscious.