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 The fate of Vincent Lambert has renewed a fierce debate over the
right to die that has split his family and the country.
"The feeding and hydration of Vincent must be restarted without
delay," declared Jean Paillot, a lawyer for Lambert's parents who
launched multiple legal bids to keep his care going. "It's a huge
victory, and only the first."
The 42-year-old former psychiatric nurse has been in a vegetative
state since a motorcycle accident in 2008. He has almost no
consciousness, but can breath without a respirator and occasionally
moves his eyes.
His wife, Rachel, and some of his siblings say care should be
withdrawn. But Lambert's Catholic parents, backed by other
relatives, say he should be kept alive and have launched a series of
legal bids to keep his care going.
His doctors in the northeastern city of Reims said earlier this
month that they would start withdrawing care after all legal avenues
had been exhausted.
Earlier on Monday, the medical team stopped feeding Lambert food and
water through a gastric tube and was administering sedatives.
Lambert's mother, Viviane, branded them "monsters".
Lambert's parents filed a last-ditch legal bid to keep him alive at
the European Court of Human Rights and appealed to French President
Emmanuel Macron to intervene.
"LET HIM GO"
The Strasbourg-based tribunal declared there was no violation of
Lambert's right to life in the medics' decision while the French
president said the decision on Lambert's fate did not rest with him.
"But it is for me to hear the emotion that has been stirred and to
respond," Macron added in a statement on Facebook. "All the medical
experts have concluded that his condition is irreversible."
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However, in a stunning twist, the Paris Appeal Court ruled that
doctors must respect a May 3 request made by the U.N. Committee on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to the French government
that it prevent the euthanasia of Lambert while his case is
examined.
Euthanasia is illegal in France, but in 2016 a law was introduced
giving terminally ill patients the right to be put into continuous
deep sedation (CDS) by doctors until death. The law draws a
distinction between euthanasia and CDS, making France the first
country to legislate in such a way.
Lambert's case has divided opinion in France.
"We cannot keep him like this, as a vegetable for decades," said
70-year-old Parisian Marie-Laure Jean. "There have been court
rulings, the doctors have given their advice. We have to let him
go."
But pensioner Caroline Lorsin saw the other side: "I'm putting
myself in his parents' shoes. It must be hard for them."
Euthanasia is permitted in various forms in the Netherlands,
Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg and Canada, while assisted suicide,
which involves a doctor helping a patient to end their own life, is
permitted in several U.S. states.
(Reporting by Gilbert Reilhac; Additional reporting by Emmanuel
Jarry and Richard Lough; Writing by Luke Baker and Richard Lough;
Editing by Leslie Adler
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