鈥楶assive euthanasia鈥 row erupts in France
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French doctors were set to begin removing life support from paralysed road accident victim Vincent Lambert yesterday, in what could be the final act in a hugely controversial right-to-die case that has drawn in Pope Francis.
The main doctor treating Lambert, Vincent Sanchez, informed his family by e-mail that he intended to start removing his feeding tubes in line with a French court ruling last Friday.
The doctor urged family members to ensure that 鈥渟upport to Mr Vincent Lambert is as peaceful, intimate and personal as possible.鈥
Lambert, 42, has been in a vegetative state since a 2008 car accident.
The question of whether to continue keeping him alive artificially bitterly divides his family and the nation.
Legal battles in French and European courts over the past six years have pitted Lambert鈥檚 Catholic parents and two of his siblings 鈥 who want to keep him alive 鈥 against his wife and six other brothers and sisters.
His wife Rachel, who is his legal guardian under French law, has maintained that Lambert had made clear before the accident that he would not want to be kept alive artificially, though this was never put in writing.
Multiple medical assessments over the years ordered by the courts have found that Lambert, a former psychiatric nurse, has no chance of recovering.
Doctors at the hospital in Reims, northern France, have made five attempts previously to remove life support before being forced to reinstate it following court rulings obtained by Lambert鈥檚 parents.
The last attempt to remove his tubes was made in May this year but was then overturned by a Paris appeals court.
The UN committee on disabled rights has also asked France to keep Lambert alive while it conducts its own investigation into his fate.
But the French government has rejected the request as non-binding.
In what was hailed as a definitive legal judgement by a lawyer representing Lambert鈥檚 wife, France鈥檚 top appeals court, the Cour de Cassation, ruled last Friday that life support could be turned off.
The case has rekindled a charged debate over France鈥檚 right-to-die laws, which allow so-called 鈥減assive euthanasia鈥 for severely ill or injured patients who are being kept alive with no chance of recovery.
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