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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/05/human-rights-court-france-tetraplegic-man-off-life-support
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| Human rights court allows France to take tetraplegic man off life support | Human rights court allows France to take tetraplegic man off life support |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| French doctors have been told by the European court of human rights that they can switch off the life support system of a man who has been in a coma for seven years. | |
| The ruling by the grand chamber of the Strasbourg court will form a precedent across the continent for other cases in which families and medical staff are in dispute over how long patients in a vegetative state should be treated. | |
| Vincent Lambert, 39, suffered serious head injuries in September 2008. He was left a tetraplegic and in a condition of complete dependence. He receives artificial nutrition and hydration administered through a gastric tube. | |
| His relatives and doctors were divided over how he should be treated. His wife, Rachel, had agreed with doctors that they should put an end to the intravenous food and water that was keeping him alive. | |
| His parents, a half-sister and half-brother, however, had appealed against the French court’s permission to end his life. The ECHR ruling cannot be appealed against. | |
| “There’s no relief, no joy to express. We’d just like his will to be done,” Lambert’s wife told journalists following the ruling. |