PARIS — Just hours after doctors stopped artificially feeding and hydrating a 42-year-old Frenchman who has spent more than a decade in a vegetative state, a French court ruled late Monday night that he must be put back on life support.
While euthanasia is illegal in France, the law allows for what has been called “passive euthanasia,” in which terminally ill or injured patients with no chances of recovery are taken off life support and put into heavy sedation until their death, after extensive consultation with their families and medical staff.
The court ruled that France had to delay the decision to halt Lambert’s life support, pending review of his situation by a United Nations-affiliated body, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, where Lambert’s parents had referred his case. Lambert’s parents and their supporters argue that because he is not terminally ill, he is a disabled person who does not fall under the purview of France’s legislation regarding end-of-life situations.
Others disagreed. In a joint opinion column published on Monday in the newspaper Le Monde, dozens of French medical professionals said that Lambert’s condition had been stable for years and that gauging his state of consciousness was too complex to reach an undoubtable conclusion.
No such thing as brain dead. HE could come out of that any time.
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