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French parents win last minute intervention for son on life support

  • May 20, 2019

The controversy surrounding paralyzed patient Vincent Lambert took an unexpected turn late on Monday, after a court in Paris decided he should be kept on life support pending a review of a United Nations Committee. The ruling was only published after doctors halted Lambert’s hydration and nutrition earlier on the same day.

Authorities should “take all measures” to keep the 42-year-old Lambert alive, the court said.

Lambert has been quadriplegic and in a vegetative state since suffering a motorcycle accident in 2008. He has suffered severe brain damage, but remains capable of breathing on his own, as well as opening and occasionally moving his eyes.

His wife, who is his legal guardian, decided to use a legal option that would have doctors stop feeding Lambert in 2014. Although euthanasia is illegal in France, the law foresees a possibility of ending life support for patients with no chance of recovery.

Family fights over Lambert’s survival

Doctors and some of Lambert’s siblings supported the idea, but other family members opposed it. Lambert’s father Pierre and mother Vivian, both devout Catholics, spearheaded a legal battle to keep their son alive, which has drawn nationwide media attention. However, courts repeatedly confirmed the wife’s right to take Lambert off life support.

Earlier this month, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities asked France to suspend the decision until the body conducts its own lengthy investigation. The French government said it was not bound by the request.

French president and pope weigh in

On Monday, a last-ditch effort to stop the procedure was rejected by the European Court of Human Rights. Lambert’s parents and their supporters held a rally outside the hospital in the northern French city of Reims.

“They are monsters! Monsters!” his mother cried as she arrived to the event.

Family lawyers said they would ask for an intervention from President Emmanuel Macron in order to “stop this madness.”

However, Macron has already rejected calls to intervene in the widely publicized dispute, saying that “the decision to stop treatment was taken after a constant dialogue between his doctors and [Lambert’s] wife, who is his legal representative.”

“All medical experts have concluded that his condition is irreversible,” the president added in a statement published on Facebook.

Pope Francis also commented on the debate, saying he was praying for people suffering from severe illness.

“Let us always safeguard life, God’s gift, from its beginning until its natural end,” he wrote on Twitter. “Let us not give in to a throwaway culture.”

dj/aw (AFP, Reuters, dpa)

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Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/french-parents-win-last-minute-intervention-for-son-on-life-support/a-48810374?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

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