Since 2008, 42-year-old Vincent Lambert has been in a semi-vegetative state after suffering severe brain trauma in an automotive accident.
While the former psychiatric nurse is capable of breathing, swallowing, responding to cues, and sleeping and waking on his own, he does require medical assistance for proper nutrients and hydration. Nonetheless, France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, has recently overturned an appeal to sustain the man’s life.
Back in May, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ordered a reversal of the decision to withdraw Lambert’s feeding tubes, but now that the Cour de Cassation has ruled, it seems Lambert has lost the fight.
He will essentially be murdered via starvation.
On Tuesday, doctors began removing life-sustaining machines that fed and hydrated him as his parents, Pierre and Viviane, watched in horror.
“It’s murder in disguise, it’s euthanasia,” said 90-year-old Pierre, who intends to press murder charges for the unjust ending of his son’s life.
France’s highest court has given a final ruling that doctors can stop feeding Vincent Lambert, who has been in a vegetative state since an accident 11 years ago. Lawyers for his parents threatened to press murder charges if his life support is halted.https://t.co/yBvnflCqPl
— Shoaib M Khan (@ShoaibMKhan) June 30, 2019
Prior to the fatal ruling, his wife Viviane went to the United Nations Committee of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to argue that her son is being discriminated against because the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “prohibits depriving a person of food and drink.”
“I beg you, help us,” Viviane pleaded with the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “Without your intervention, my son, Vincent Lambert, will be euthanized because of his mental handicap.”
“In May, when learning about his planned death, he cried,” said the heartbroken mother.
While she has the support of her husband and two of Vincent’s siblings, his remaining six siblings and wife Rachel are proponents of ending his life-sustaining care.
“Vincent is not a vegetable,” Viviane pleaded with the committee. “I beg you to intervene with France and remind it of its obligation to not let my son die.”
Rachel vehemently opposes her mother-in-law’s opinion, claiming that Vincent would “never have wanted to be kept in this state.”
