The morbid soap opera of the Vincent Lambert affair seems endless. However, this January 7, the European Court of Human Rights will write the epilogue. All the media are deciphering this morning what will be played out today in Strasbourg, in public session. The issue, Le Monde sums it up in a few words: “whether or not Vincent Lambert will be kept alive”. This is what the 17 judges of the Grand Chamber of the ECHR must decide.
Concretely, they will have to decide the following crucial question: does the cessation of nutrition and hydration, in other words the cessation of care, constitute a “violation of the right to life” and “inhuman treatment or degrading”? The Council of State had considered last June that the cessation of treatment constituted an unreasonable obstinacy and that it was therefore legal. An interpretation disputed by the parents of Vincent Lambert. “The purpose of stopping food and hydration here is openly death”, explains in the Cross their lawyer, Jean Paillot, which violates article 2 of the treaty (right to life). His clients also believe that deprivation of food and hydration constitutes torture, thus flouting article 3.” In other words, the judges will have to say whether the Leonetti law complies with the European Convention on Human Rights.
A point of law that will have immediate and radical consequences. In a month or two, when the judges of the ECHR render their judgment, the latter will be “immediately enforceable”, specifies Le Monde. In other words, if the cessation of treatment is not deemed contrary to European law, nothing will stand in the way of the end of Vincent Lambert’s life. Parents will no longer be able to appeal. The story could therefore end there. But will the court decision appease those close to Vincent Lambert? Nothing is less sure. As the journalist from the Cross shows, the tears have multiplied over the years in the family of the patient in a vegetative state. Viviane Lambert’s dearest wish, that “her children reconcile”, is not ready to be granted.
