PARIS: A top French court gave the green light yesterday to ending life support for a man in a vegetative state for the last six years, in a closely watched ruling that went against the wishes of his parents.
The case of Vincent Lambert, who has been a quadriplegic with severe brain damage since a road accident in 2008, has torn his family apart at a time of intense debate in France over euthanasia and the high-profile trial of a doctor accused of poisoning seven terminally ill patients.
Doctors treating the 38-year-old in the northeastern city of Reims, as well as his wife, nephew and six of his eight siblings want to cut off intravenous food and water supplies.
But his deeply religious Catholic parents, one brother and one sister oppose the decision and have now taken the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The Strasbourg-based court has the power to temporarily stop doctors from cutting life support pending a full review of the case. It could issue that order today.
The State Council, France’s highest administrative court, ruled that ending life support for Lambert was in line with a 2005 law that allowed passive euthanasia — the act of withholding or withdrawing treatment that is necessary to maintain life.
“This decision is without any doubt the most difficult the State Council has had to take in the last 50 years,” said the deputy head of the court, Jean-Marc Sauve.
The court said the decision to end treatment was in conformity with the wishes of Lambert, a former psychiatric nurse, that he did not want to be kept alive artificially.
“Vincent’s wish not to continue living this way has been heard,” his wife Rachel told AFP.
“This is an important and decisive step in my fight for respecting my husband,” she said.
Vincent’s nephew Francois also hailed the ruling, saying he was deeply relieved. “I will go to say goodbye one more time, one last time I hope,” he said.
But a lawyer for Lambert’s parents Pierre and Viviane denounced the ruling as “dark barbarism in a white coat”.
“This is a sad day,” said the lawyer, Jerome Triomphe.
Lambert’s doctor Eric Kariger said he hoped to move “as quickly as possible” to end intravenous food and water supplies.
AFP
