After an eleven-year legal battle, they allow to disconnect a man in a vegetative state – 05/02/2019

A man in the vegetative state. A family who can not hear about his destination. And an 11-year legal battle that could now end.

The history of French Vincent Lambert is worthy of a movie. His case became his country a model of the debate on euthanasia. Nurse by profession, today 42 years old, traumatic brain injury resulting from a road accident that he suffered in 2008 he left her tetraplegic and absolutely addicted. In 2011, doctors ruled out any possibility of improvement and, in 2014, their condition was clbadified as vegetative. Since then, his family is dividedlike the public opinion in France. The parents, the sister and a half-brother are in favor of keeping him artificially alive, to which his wife, his five brothers and sisters and a nephew are opposed.

After successive exchanges in different judicial bodies, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) refused to apply the provisional measures requested by Vincent's parents, who ask to prevent doctors from suspending the treatment that keeps him with life prostrate in a bed.

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The parents went to the European court on April 23, a day before the State Council, the highest court of administrative justice in France, Validate the stop of artificial feeding and hydration of Lambert and forbid him to leave the French territory.

The State Council had already authorized in 2014 Lambert's artificial nutrition and hydration and, with its decision, the ECHR was reaffirmed in its 2015 judgment in which it concluded that the execution of this decision was not contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights.

This verdict confirmed the position of Rachel, Lambert's wife, and doctors who had treated her at the University Hospital of Reims, in favor of disconnecting the patient from the devices that keep him alive . The parents' request not to let him leave the country is due to the fact that they fear that his wife will take him to Belgium, where euthanasia is regulated.

In this long family and judicial battle, parents, deep religious beliefs, they have always defended their son's right to life and they considered that the disconnection would involve inhuman or degrading treatment, so that in recent years they have exhausted all possible legal remedies.

According to Spanish newspaper El País, parents still have confidence a last resort before the United Nations Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. "In practice, France feels more attached to the decisions of the ECHR than to the United Nations committees when there are differences," said Nicolas Hervieu, a specialist in European law, at the same time. ;France Media Agency. François Lambert, Vincent's nephew, badured the same media that "nothing stands in the way of the decision" to put an end to the care his uncle receives. "This corresponds to apply and finally Vincent can leave"He asked.

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The Lambert case is similar to that of Alfie Evans, who revived last year's debate on euthanasia and dignified death in the UK. The baby, who was suffering from an irreversible degenerative disease, died several days after being disconnected by his doctors. The parents opposed this decision and even received in their crusade the support of Pope Francis.

Source: EFE

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