Doctors have been given the go-ahead by the High Court to stop feeding two patients trapped in a persistent vegetative state.

It had been thought the new Human Rights Act, which came into effect this week, might have an impact on the precedent set in 1993, when doctors were allowed to stop feeding Tony Bland, a young victim of the Hillsborough disaster.

But on Friday, High Court family division judge Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss ruled that, even taking the new Act into consideration, it was still in the best interests of the women that artificial feeding and hydration stop.

The judge said all those treating the women would not be breaking the law if they stopped active treatment to keep the women alive, although they should still make sure they "died with dignity".

No decision-making capacity

She said that both women, identified only as Ms H, 36, and Mrs M, 49, lacked the capacity to make decisions as to their future medical treatment.

In both cases, relatives wanted the woman's life to be ended.

The decision has enraged groups who are opposed to withdrawal of feeding from PVS patients.

Phyllis Bowman, campaign director of Right To Life, said: "We find it astounding - we can't see how it's a basic human right to be starved and dehydrated to death."

She said the group would be taking legal advice with a view to hopefully taking a similar case to the European Court in Strasbourg in future.

A statement from the hospital trust treating Ms H said: "The application was made only after a very thorough and rigorous process of seeking independent medical opinion and discussion with the family.

"The Trust wishes to stress that it has at all times sought to act in the best interests of the patient."

The hospital treating Mrs M said: "It is the wish of the family and those responsible for the medical and nursing care of this patient that she is permitted to end her life peacefully and with dignity."

However, a section of the new Act says that everyone's "right to life" should be protected by law, and it was the effects of this section that was tested in court.

Since the landmark Tony Bland ruling, the courts have given approval in approximately 20 cases where doctors wanted to stop feeding.

'Twilight zone'

PVS is a condition, often caused by oxygen starvation, in which a patient is unconscious, but can continue living indefinitely if fed and hydrated through a tube.

At the High Court on Thursday, John Grace QC, representing the two hospitals caring for PVS patients, described their plight as a "twilight zone of suspended animation where death commences whilst life continues."

The court heard about the first of the two cases, in which a 49-year-old woman, named only as Mrs M for legal reasons, was left severely brain damaged by an anaesthetic accident during a gynaecological operation overseas in 1997.

Although she responds to some stimuli, the doctors agree that these are only reflexes and that there is no possibility of recovery.

However, if feeding and hydration continues, doctors say she could live for 12 years or more.

If the life support is withdrawn, she would die within a fortnight, and doctors claim there would be no possible distress.

Cardiac arrest

Mr Grace said the second woman, referred to as Ms H, was now 36 suffered a cardiac arrest following an attack of pancreatitis in the US at Christmas 1999.

She has been in PVS since that date, and doctors have had problems maintaining her feeding since then.

The latest problem, a blocked feeding tube which would need fully-fledged treatment by doctor instead of simply nutrition, has prompted the court action.

Guidelines recommend that doctors should only consider withdrawal of feeding in patients who have been in PVS for more than a year.