A Liverpool fan in a minimally-conscious state for the past four years should be allowed to die despite him crying when You'll Never Walk Alone is played, a judge has ruled.
The patient suffered a head injury in a road accident and is very unlikely to regain the ability to interact, the High Court heard.
But heartrendingly, his brother revealed how his sibling starts to sob whenever he hears the Liverpool FC anthem.
Relatives told Mr Justice Hayden that the man cried a lot and they thought his crying was an expression of sadness.
The man's mother said she thought that he wanted to die and the judge agreed.
Relatives told Mr Justice Hayden how the man "loved" football.
His brother said sometime cried when music was played to him.
"He cries when you play a particular song," said his brother.
"He cries when you play, You'll Never Walk Alone."
The judge said the evidence "pointed very heavily in one direction" and showed that it would be in the man's best interests if medics stopped providing food and water through a tube.
Mr Justice Hayden analysed the case at a hearing in the Court of Protection, where issues relating to people who do not have the capacity to make decisions for themselves are considered.
He said the man, who is in his 50s, could not be identified in media reports of the case.
Bosses at the NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, which is based in Gloucester, have responsibilities for the man's care and had asked the judge to decide what was in his best interests.
The man had suffered a head injury in a road accident more than four years ago, and had been left in a "prolonged disorder of consciousness".
Initially specialists thought he was in permanent vegetative state.
But his level of awareness had increased over the last year, and doctors thought he was now in a minimally-conscious state.
Specialists thought he might live another eight years if medics continued providing food and water through a tube.
"(He) cries, and he cries a lot," said Mr Justice Hayden, in a ruling.
"The consensus is that his crying is reflective of his sadness and distress."
Mr Justice Hayden added: "(His) mother says she thinks that he no longer wants to be here - that he wants, as she puts it, his final rest.
"I agree with his mother, that he is indicating that he wants to go."
Mr Justice Hayden added: "We are not really concerned here with the question of whether (he) should die or live.
"We are, if we address it properly and honestly, really concerned with the way he lives the rest of his life and in what circumstances."
