Vincent Lambert

Vincent Lambert (20 September 1976 in Châteauroux – 11 July 2019 in Reims) was a French man who in 2008 fell into a persistent vegetative state after sustaining critical injuries in a road accident. He had been working as a psychiatric nurse since 2000, and had been married since 2007 to a woman named Rachel, then a nursing student.[1] After an 11-years legal battle between two opposed sides of his family (most prominently his widow, Rachel Lambert, willing to let him die according to the wishes he reportedly repeatedly expressed prior to the accident — but never formalized into a written living will — , and his mother, Viviane Lambert, determined to keep him alive, according to her strong traditionalist catholic convictions[2]), the courts eventually allowed him to die through starvation in July 2019.[3] Like the Terri Schiavo case in the USA, his case spurred highly publicized activism from the pro-life movement, the right-to-die movement, and disability rights groups, in France and french-speaking countries.[4]

Hearing on the Lambert case in Strasbourg, 5 June 2015. Members of his family are seated in the first row.

See also

Terri Schiavo case (a similar case in the USA, wherein a woman remained in a persistent vegetative state for fifteen years)

References

1. "Comment le sort de Vincent Lambert a déchiré sa famille".
2. "Affaire Lambert : une famille et 17 juges face à la mort".
3. Frenchman at center of Right-to-Die case, dies at 42
4. "Case of Lambert and others v. France" (PDF).