Man in Vegetative State Cried When Told He'd Be Euthanized Against His Will, Mother Said
The 42-year-old man who has become the face of the right-to-die debate in France has died after he was taken off life support.
Vincent Lambert, a quadriplegic man from France, was told in May that there was a possibility that he would be euthanized by starvation.
His mother told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that her son cried upon hearing the news, according to the Agence France-Presse.
“We are deeply upset this is why we have turned to the U.N. Committee of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities because the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities prohibits depriving a person of food and drink. This would be a discrimination.”
Lambert, who is a former nurse, has been in a partially vegetative state ever since he was injured in a car accident in 2008.
While he can breathe on his own without the help of machines, he does require medical help when it comes to fluids and overall nutrition.
On Thursday, July 11, Lambert tragically passed away, nine days after doctors removed his feeding tubes, BBC reported.
Last month, a French court ruled in favor of Lambert’s wife and granted her petition to have her husband’s life ended.
The court ruled that Lambert would be allowed to die by keeping the needed fluids and nutrition from him.
The ruling overturned an appeals court decision to keep Lambert alive 12 hours after medics had turned off his life support despite the will of his parents, Reuters reported.
The battle over Lambert’s life has divided the family with his wife and six of his siblings wanting him to be taken off of life support while his parents and the two other siblings have been fighting to keep him alive.
Lambert’s parents said that while he’s “in a state of minimal conscience,” Lambert is “not a vegetable.”
“He sleeps at night, wakes up during the day, and looks at me when I talk,” his mother said.
“He only needs to be fed through a special device and his doctor wants to deprive him of this so that he can die, while legal experts have shown that this is not necessary,” she added.
On Monday, Lambert’s parents along with two of his siblings announced that they would not be bringing any more legal action, LifeSite News reported.
“This time, it is finished,” they wrote.
“Death is now inevitable. It was imposed on him as well as on us. While we do not accept it, we can only resign ourselves, in sorrow and with incomprehension, but also in Hope,” they added.
The family went on to thank those who supported them through the journey and asked that people would continue to remember them in their prayers.
“There is nothing more to do but to pray and accompany our dear Vincent, in dignity and silent prayer. By thought and prayer you are all close to us, with Vincent,” they said.
While euthanasia is illegal in France, a 2016 law allows doctors to put their patients into continuous deep sedation until they die, according to Reuters.
The Western Journal has reached out to the Council of Europe, Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, for comment but has not yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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