French court backs doctors in right-to-die case

A French court on Thursday upheld a decision by doctors to withdraw life support for a man kept alive in a vegetative state for a decade, after the latest legal challenge by the patient's parents in a divisive right-to-die case. Vincent Lambert, 42, was left a tetraplegic after a car accident in 2008, with doctors later determining that his severe brain damage was irreversible.
Under French law, doctors then decided to remove the intravenous food and water keeping Lambert alive, a move backed by his wife and six of his eight brothers and sisters. But his deeply devout Catholic parents contested the decision, arguing that Lambert's condition might improve if he received better treatment.
That set off years of legal wrangling over the power of French doctors to determine whether a patient in a long-term vegetative state should be kept alive.