Weighing less than 30 kilograms, the wheelchair-bound Wu has to take more than 10 kinds of medicine for various illnesses, including diabetes and extremely low blood pressure. She needs a massage of an hour and a half in order to pass faeces.

In the absence of round-the-clock care for Wu, her supporters said, sending her to prison would almost guarantee she would die while serving her term. But critics said allowing her to remain free would draw the criticism that the judicial authorities were failing to uphold justice.

After more than three hours of discussion of what to do with Wu, the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office decided yesterday to send Wu to the Pei Teh special prison for seriously sick female inmates, in Taichung in central Taiwan.

'After assessing all the conditions and suitable prisons for female inmates, we believe Pei Teh Prison Hospital in Taichung would be the most appropriate one, as it could offer her the medical care she needs,' Lin Pang-liang, a spokesman for the prosecutors' office, said.

Asked if the prosecutors had considered the possibility that Wu might die because of improper health care, Lin said he would not answer hypothetical questions.

The ex-president's daughter, Chen Hsing-yu, said yesterday she did not question the judicial decision regarding her mother, but if Wu died because of improper health care, she said, she would sue the authorities for 'manslaughter'.

'Our doctors have evaluated the situation regarding my mother serving her term in prison like other inmates need to do, and if the prison authorities are able to take good care of her, then we have no problem with her serving her term there,' she said.

She said she had no idea what kind of care and medical services Pei Teh could offer her mother, but 'I would be very unhappy if she died because of maltreatment, including no one taking care of her meals and excretion, which are basic rights of human beings'.

The prosecutors' office said yesterday it had yet to decide when to send Wu to Pei Teh, but local media said she would likely start her sentence in the middle of this month.

The high court finalised the prison term for Chen Shui-bian yesterday at a combined 17 years and six months, a reduction from the 19-year term the Supreme Court had handed him, based on 11 years for taking bribes in one case and eight years for taking bribes in a second case.

Revised regulations now provide for a discount when sentences for similar crimes are imposed, so the high court fixed the term Chen must serve at 17 years and six months. The court will decide later the exact term Wu must serve.

Meanwhile, the son of Kuomintang honorary chairman Lien Chan was discharged from hospital more than 10 days after he was rushed to hospital after being shot during an election eve campaign rally on November 26. Sean Lien Sheng-wen suffered a face wound after he was shot at close range by a gunman, who claimed he had fired at him by mistake. Police are still investigating the motive behind the shooting.