Brain-damaged patient in French right-to-die case passes away after treatment is withdrawn

Vincent Lambert, the French quadriplegic in a vegetative state who’s been at the center of a decade-long battle over his life support, has died after doctors switched off the medical systems that had been keeping him alive.

Medical experts said Lambert, paralyzed in a road accident in 2008, was in an irreversible vegetative state with no chance of recovering. He had almost no consciousness but could breathe without a respirator and occasionally moved his eyes.

The decision whether to keep the 42-year-old alive split his family and sparked a nationwide debate. Lambert’s wife says her husband told her before the accident that he would not want to be kept alive under such conditions. 

However, no written proof of that directive existed, leading to a lengthy and brutal legal battle between his wife, several siblings and nephews, against his mother, father and other Catholic relatives who fought to keep him alive. 

Lambert’s parents said a “state crime” had been committed when France’s highest court ruled that his care could be terminated. While euthansia is illegal in France, doctors are permitted to put terminally-ill patients into deep sedation until death.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!