Off the wire
• Worries about unemployment, corruption fall in Spain while remaining main problems  • Spanish Interior Ministry to compile passenger database to combat jihadist terrorism  • Malta parliamentary speaker expresses condolences to French counterpart  • UN envoy holds first meeting with key Libyan military leaders  • Greeks stand in solidarity with French people after deadly terrorist attack  • Juncker, Straujuma meet on Latvian presidency of Council of EU  • Spanish stock market rises 2.26 pct, closes at 10,115 points  • U.S., Iran to hold bilateral nuclear meetings in Geneva  • Incumbent Sri Lankan president takes lead in 2015 election  • 1st LD Writethru: U.S. to cut European military bases to save cost, Pentagon says  
You are here: 　 Home

European Court of Human Rights to rule on French life support case

Xinhua, January 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

The European Court of Human Rights will make a judgement in one to two months time on the life support case of Vincent Lambert, a 38-year-old French man who is quadriplegic and has been in a state of complete dependence since a road accident on Sept. 29, 2008.

The court met Wednesday for a Grand Chamber hearing of 17 judges to decide whether to intervene in the implementation of a judgement by the Conseil d'Etat, the highest administrative jurisdiction in France, which would allow for the removal of life support for Lambert.

The controversial case includes a divided family, as the patient's parents, Pierre and Viviane Lambert, wish to stop a doctor's decision to end the artificial nutrition and rehydration program that currently keeps Lambert alive in a special unit of Reims University Hospital.

In a press release made on Wednesday, the court explained that Dr. Kariger, the doctor in charge of Lambert, took the decision in early 2013, after caretakers noticed increasing resistance to day-to-day care from the patient.

Dr. Kariger's decision was made with the agreement of the patient's wife, Rachel Lambert, and was based on the Leonetti Law, the French legal code on patients' rights and end of life procedures.

It specifically allows the withdrawal of procedures that are "unreasonably obstinate," such as maintaining a patient's life despite an impossible prognosis.

Lambert's parents, however, have repeatedly sought emergency injunctions to reverse the doctor's decision, twice receiving judges' orders to re-implement the feeding and rehydration program.

However, the patient's wife, his nephew, and Reims University Hospital appealed to the Conseil d'Etat, which found Dr. Kariger's decision to be lawful and refused the Lambert family's demands.

As a result, Pierre and Viviane Lambert, along with the patient's half-brother and sister, lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, invoking Lambert's right to life and comparing the end of his life support to an act of torture.

The judges have heard the case, but a decision may take several weeks as they consider the results of the Grand Chamber hearing. Endit