STRASBOURG, France
A Frenchman who has been in a vegetative state for seven years on Friday was granted the right to have his life support stopped by the European Court of Human Rights.
In a statement on its website, the court announced it had backed a previous decision by a French court to withdraw treatment from Vincent Lambert, 38, who suffered severe brain damage and paralysis in a 2008 road accident.
His wife and some of his siblings had called for his life support to be ended while his devout Roman Catholic parents wanted him to be kept alive at a hospital in Rheims, north France.
Last year, France’s highest court, the Council of State, authorized the withdrawal of intravenously delivered food and water. Lambert’s parents and two siblings took the case to the European court on the grounds the decision was a violation of the right to life and constituted "inhuman and degrading treatment" under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Strasbourg court ruled by 12 votes to five “there would be no violation of Article 2 of the convention in the event of implementation of the Conseil d’État judgment”. The ruling cannot be appealed.
The case has caused debate in largely Catholic France, where euthanasia is illegal but doctors are allowed to withdraw care under a 2005 passive euthanasia law.
