Top French court authorizes ending life of quadriplegic

PARIS, France (UPDATED) – France’s top administrative court on Tuesday, June 24, gave the green light to cutting life support for a 38-year-old in a vegetative state, going against his parents’ wish to keep him alive.

The State Council ruled that a decision taken by doctors – and supported by his wife, nephew and several siblings – to stop treating Vincent Lambert, who has been a quadriplegic since a car crash in 2008, was legal.

The question of whether he should be kept alive artificially has split his family, and comes at a time of intense debate in France over euthanasia as the high-profile trial of a doctor accused of poisoning seven terminally ill patients takes place.

Doctors treating Lambert in the northeastern city of Reims, as well as his wife, nephew and six of his eight siblings want to cut off intravenous food and water supplies.

But his deeply religious Catholic parents, one brother and one sister opposed the decision and took the matter to court near Reims, which ruled against ending his life earlier this year.

The case was brought to the State Council on appeal. Lambert’s parents prior to the decision took the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, in case the council decided to end their son’s life.

The European court has the power to implement urgent, temporary measures “where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm” and in this instance, could stop doctors from cutting life support pending a review of the case.

The move to take him off life support would be allowed in France, where passive euthanasia – the act of withholding or withdrawing treatment that is necessary to maintain life – was legalized in 2005.

On Friday, the State Council’s public rapporteur Remi Keller, a magistrate charged with laying out the case, recommended ending Lambert’s life, saying there was no hope of recovery.

“The food and hydration being provided to Vincent Lambert are having no other effect than to keep him artificially in his current state,” Keller said.

The State Council usually follows its rapporteur’s recommendations, although it is under no obligation to do so.

“I would like the rapporteur’s conclusions to be followed by the State Council, that we let Vincent go peacefully, with dignity,” his wife Rachel told Europe 1 radio earlier Tuesday.

His mother, though, told BFMTV on Monday evening that her son was not a “vegetable.”

The trial of mercy killing doctor Nicolas Bonnemaison, meanwhile, is due to close at the end of the week.  – Rappler.com