Six months after the death of Vincent Lambert, his doctor, doctor Vincent Sanchez, was released on Tuesday by the correctional court of Reims dan sla Marne. He was prosecuted for “no assistance to the person in dangerBy the patient’s parents. The lawyers for the Lambert couple announced that they had immediately appealed the decision.
On May 20, 2019, Viviane and Pierre Lambert took the decision to bring the head of the palliative care service as well as the Reims University Hospital. That day, with the agreement of the Council of State, the doctors had stopped for the second time the care given to Vincent Lambert. In the evening, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered the resumption of treatment while waiting for the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CDPH) to rule. Me Jérôme Triomphe, lawyer for the Lambert parents, deplores absences in the trial: “The court did not say a word from the Defender of Rights, who recalled the compulsory nature of the UN interim measures. He did not say a word about the Paris Court of Appeal ruling of May 20 that disowned Dr. Sanchez. “
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On June 28, the Court of Cassation had finally rejected the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal and requested a new interruption of treatment. For the third and last time, on July 2, the Reims University Hospital put an end to Vincent Lambert’s nutrition and hydration. Nine days later, the 42-year-old man died. “The court does not even speak of the judgment of the Court of Cassation which quashed the judgment of May 20 on a simple question of jurisdiction by specifying that in these conditions, it did not have to rule on the question of the compulsory character of provisional measures“, Adds Me Triomphe to Figaro.
The Reims court therefore fully followed the requisitions of the prosecutor Matthieu Bourrette during the hearing on November 26. The prosecution had then estimated that “athere is nothing that characterizes the failure to assist a person in danger ”. Like him, the court considers that the head of the palliative care service and of the cerebrolésé unit of the CHU de Reims has “fully respected its legal obligations“. According to the court, the collegial procedure which led to the cessation of treatment for Vincent Lambert did not affect the integrity of the patient, who had been in a vegetative state for several years.
The court also stressed that the action of Vincent Lambert’s parents had “reasons other than to oppose the Leonetti-Claeys lawOn the end of life. In November, the prosecutor also ruled that the court was used as a forum to denounce the law adopted in 2006 which justifies stopping treatment under certain conditions. “Justice must not respond to emotion with anything other than the rigor of the law”, did he estimate. “This lawsuit was wanted by the mother of Vincent Lambert. She is a loving mother. But is it enough to have an interest in acting? It is not in the name of her son that she acts but in her own name.“
For his part, Doctor Sanchez has always declared to have “respected the law. Respected my patient in his rights and dignity. And also his whole family, without preconceptions ”.
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