Doctors told to resume life support for patient

A French court on Monday ordered doctors to switch life-support systems back on in the case of a 42-year-old quadriplegic man with severe brain damage. He has been in a coma for a decade and his care has divided the nation.

Nearly 12 hours earlier, doctors had withdrawn treatment, nutrition, and hydration from Vincent Lambert, in line with the wishes of his wife and several members of his family and in compliance with rulings from lower courts. The courts had decided that nothing more could be done to improve his vegetative state, which followed a 2008 motorcycle accident.

But the Vincent's parents, Pierre and Viviane Lambert, wanted their son to be kept alive and took the case to the Paris Court of Appeal, which ruled in their favor.

The dispute that divided the family and the nation has become a battleground for groups advocating for people's right to die, and for those wanting to protect the sanctity of life and the rights of people with disabilities.

"They were starting to eliminate Vincent!" his mother told Agence France-Presse after the appeal court made its ruling. "This is a very big victory. They are going to restore nutrition and give him drinks. For once I am proud of the courts."

Vincent's wife and six of his eight siblings had insisted the most humane course of action would have been to let Vincent die under France's right-to-die legislation, which allows "passive" euthanasia for severely ill people and those with chronic injuries and no chance of recovery.

Vincent's nephew told reporters the resumption of treatment to keep him alive was "pure sadism by the medical-judicial system".

Pope Francis, leader of the pro-life Roman Catholic Church, had earlier called for Vincent to be kept alive.

He said: "Let us always safeguard life, God's gift, from its beginning until its natural end. Let us not give in to a throwaway culture."

At the weekend, Vincent's parents wrote an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron, urging him to intervene on their side but Macron said the earlier ruling to let Vincent die was made "after a constant dialogue between his doctors and his wife, who is his legal representative".

Lambert's wife, Rachel, told RTL radio that "to see him go" would have been "to see him as a freed man".

She said there is no way her husband, who was injured in a 2008 car accident, would have wanted to stay alive under such conditions.

The divided family has been battling in the courts since 2014 over whether Vincent's life-support machine should be switched off. The case has been reviewed by several courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, and will now be reviewed by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.