  We discuss the effects of coupling of the relative motion to nuclear
collective excitations which have a finite lifetime on heavy-ion fusion
reactions at energies near and below the Coulomb barrier. Both spreading and
escape widths are explicitly taken into account in the exit doorway model. The
coupled-channels equations are numerically solved to show that the finite
resonance width always hinders fusion cross sections at subbarrier energies
irrespective of the relative importance between the spreading and the escape
widths. We also show that the structure of fusion barrier distribution is
smeared due to the spreading of the strength of the doorway state.
