The administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne) validated the procedure for stopping Vincent Lambert’s treatment. He confirms the “unreasonable obstinacy” made to this man, quadriplegic since 2008.
The administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne) validates the procedure for stopping the care of Vincent Lambert, quadriplegic since 2008 and at the heart of a split within his family, between those who wish to keep him alive and the others who wish to end it.
The court decision follows that taken by the Reims University Hospital last April. “It follows (…) that the maintenance of care and treatment constitutes an unreasonable obstinacy” and “that Vincent Lambert’s desire not to be kept alive in the event that he finds himself in the state which has been his since ten years, is established,” says the court ruling, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
His condition deemed “irreversible” twice
The parents of Vincent Lambert are firmly opposed to the cessation of care, and this from the beginning. After the collegial decision of the CHU de Reims, taken on April 9, the latter filed an urgent request for it to be suspended. In its order, the court confirms that Dr. Vincent Sanchez, of the CHU of Reims, was right to consider that “the maintenance of the care and treatments which are prescribed to Vincent Lambert, of which food and hydration are part, only has the effect of artificially sustaining the patient’s life”.
The administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne adds that the doctor’s decision is not contrary to the prescriptions of the Claeys-Leonetti law on the end of life. Because the “irreversible” state of the quadriplegic patient has been highlighted twice, in 2014 and then in 2018, by two judicial expertise. However, the battle may not be over yet. The parents of Vincent Lambert can still seize the Council of State by appealing.
Behind Vincent Lambert, the end-of-life debate
In 2008, Vincent Lambert was the victim of a road accident. Aged 42, a father, he plunges into a vegetative state. Five years later, when his condition had not improved, the medical team taking care of him decided, after consulting his wife, to stop feeding and hydrating him. The parents of Vincent Lambert not having been consulted, the decision is canceled by the administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne.
A long legal battle ensued. The patient’s family is torn apart with, on one side, his wife, his nephew and some of his brothers and sisters who are in favor of stopping treatment. On the other, his parents and his other brothers and sisters who want him to be kept alive. In 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued an exceptional decision, validating the procedure for stopping treatment. But the outcome of this case is still uncertain today.
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