Inherited Text-Decoration style

Question

How would I negate or remove a parents text-decoration style? For example in the following, both the text and the anchor have a text-decoration of line-through, is there a way to not have that applied to the anchor tag?

<span style="text-decoration:line-through;">
Dead Text 
<a href="#" style="text-decoration:underline;color:Red;">Not Dead Text</a>

NOTE: wrapping the inner text in a span isn't an easy option with what I have so I'm looking for a solution based on the css styles if possible.

Answer 1

I don't believe it's possible. From SitePoint:

Also, text decorations on inline boxes are rendered along the entire box, even if it contains descendant boxes. This, too, may appear similar to inheritance. Any text decoration setting on a descendant box can never “undo” the text decorations of an ancestor box.