A 29 year old Romanian suffering of cirrhosis who called on President Traian Basescu a week ago to allow him being put to death died in a Constanta hospital on Saturday night, Romanian news agency Newsin reports. Eugen has been suffering of extreme complications of the illness and asked the president to approve euthanasia in his case because he could no longer bear the pain.

A spokesman for the emergency hospital in Constanta, doctor Florian Stoian, said the patient died of heart failure.

President Basescu had responded to Eugen's letter by saying that he could understand the suffering but that euthanasia was banned by the criminal code of the country.