Symbol of the debate on dignified death: Vincent Lambert died after 11 years in a vegetative state

PARIS (AFP) .- Vincent Lambert, in vegetative state for nearly 11 years, died this morning, nine days after
the Court will authorize the suspension of the treatment that kept him alive and after he became the symbol of the
debate on euthanasia in

la France

.

"We were ready to let him go," François Lambert, nephew and one of the main promoters of the treatment, told AFP. "We announced with a broken heart that God had welcomed our beloved Vincent into our womb," said David Philippon, half-brother of the patient and resisting the discontinuation of treatment.

In 2008, Vincent, a nurse, was 32 years old and had just born his first daughter after a car accident near his home in Châlons-en-Champagne, in the north-east of France, which left him a quadriplegic and in a vegetative state. . His situation divides his family and triggers a legal battle that culminates in a judgment of the Court of Cbadation, the highest court in France, which authorizes his doctor, Vincent Sanchez, to stop the probes that feed him and the family. ; moisturize. after the 2nd of July.

His parents, Viviane and Pierre, fervent Catholics, have struggled to keep him alive, with the help of his lawyers and various badociations such as the Committee "Support Vincent". On the contrary, his wife Rachel, his nephew and his six brothers and sisters denounced a "therapeutic cruelty". According to them, Vincent would have preferred to die to live in a vegetative state without ever putting it in writing.

National debate

The Lambert case became relevant in French public life, so much so that even the president

Emmanuel Macron

He had to decide the case when Lambert's parents asked for his intervention by letter and that the UN also intervened afterwards.
In May, the court agreed to terminate the treatment and it was interrupted the next day at the request of the Paris Court of Appeal, which
He solicited the opinion of the international organization.

Unlike other European countries like Holland, Belgium or Switzerland,
Active euthanasia or active suicide are prohibited in France.

In France, the debate on the aid to death erupted in August 2008, the same year as the Lambert accident, when a seriously ill man of 23 years later committed suicide have received a negative response from President Nicolas Sarkozy at his request to allow the right to euthanasia.

Rémy Salvat, who was suffering from a mitochondrial disease from the age of six, ingested a mbadive dose of medication and
while he was dying, he recorded a touching testimony. "I hope the debate on euthanasia will not fall into oblivion," he said, his voice trembling, in a recording found next to his body.

Lambert's parents lost the battle despite their multiple attempts to stop the process, and the request to the UN was their last resort. From the moment of the accident, they considered their son to be disabled and not in a vegetative state and asked to be transferred to a specialized facility.

A death "worthy"

In a message referring to Lambert's case, the

dad Francisco

"We pray for those who live in a state of serious illness, always keep life, the gift of God, from the beginning to the natural end of life, and do not give in to the culture of the discard," wrote the Pope Argentinian on Twitter. .

The case of Lambert reminds other people, like Terri Schiavo in the United States, "disconnected" in 2005 despite the opposition of her parents at the request of her husband or baby Alfie Evans in England, whose the treatment was interrupted in 2018 after a long court battle.

In Spain, the family of a woman with advanced degenerative disease must face a hospital that refuses to resuscitate her if she is stopped by cardiorespiratory, claiming that, in her condition, it would be unnecessary suffering .