The case of euthanasia moving in France: doctors will let Vincent Lambert die

French doctor Vincent Lambert, quadriplegic in a vegetative state for more than a decadeHe announced to the family that he would stop his treatment in two weeks to let him die. Lambert has become a symbol of the debate on euthanasia in his country. The case is not only facing the Dr. Vincent Sánchez with the lawyers, but the family members between them.

The 42-year-old patient, a psychiatric nurse by profession, suffered head trauma Following a traffic accident in 2008, he became quadriplegic and totally dependent. In 2011, doctors ruled out any possibility of improvement and in 2014, his condition was qualified as "vegetative"

The lawyers of Lambert's parents, Jean Paillot and Jérôme Triomphe, defenders of "their right to life", indicated that Sánchez of the hospital of Reims had informed them the intention to execute the decision to disconnect Lambert. The interruption of treatment, authorized in April by the highest court of administrative justice and endorsed by the European Court of Human Rights, would take place in the week of the 20th of this month, according to local media reports.

The lawyers pointed out that if this decision were to be executed, Lambert would die in a few days and they invoked the request made to France by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to suspend any decision pending the examination of the merits of the case.

For its part, the French government, which had declared that it wanted to respond to the international organization, said that The legal course of the case is already exhausted, after the answer granted by the administrative justice.

For lawyers, "there is no medical emergency to interrupt feeding and hydration Lambert, and nothing justifies such a blatant violation of international law and the precautionary measures required by the United Nations. "

In the own family of the patient, the parents, the sister and a half-brother are in favor of keeping him artificially alive, while his wife, his five brothers and sisters and a nephew are s & # 39; oppose to prolong your treatment.