INTERVIEW
This is the end of a soap opera. The parents of Vincent Lambert, a tetraplegic patient in a vegetative state for more than ten years, announced Monday morning, in an open letter, the end of their opposition to the cessation of treatment. A relief for François Lambert, Vincent's nephew. "To be perfectly honest, I feared a little more violent reactions from them," he says on Europe 1.
"Their message is very contradictory"
Six days after the cessation of care, his family followed one another Monday at the University Hospital of Reims. First Pierre and Vivianne, the parents, arrived late morning. Then François Lambert, in the middle of the afternoon. The hospital had reserved the two neighboring rooms to those of Vincent to allow the various camps of the family to watch without ever seeing each other. But after six years of legal battle, the time seems rather to be "appeasement".
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"I was in the service, it was very quiet," says François Lambert at the microphone of Matthieu Belliard. He says to himself "extremely surprised by the message of Vincent's parents because he is very contradictory, they continue to say that it is a death imposed on him, that it is an assassination and at the same time, as they are resigned, they will be in meditation and dignity with him, which is still from my point of view a very good thing. " Sunday, the father of Vincent Lambert had indeed denounced, arriving at the hospital, a "disguise assassination" in progress. A complaint for "attempted murder" has also been filed.
"Make sure that things like this do not happen again"
So, why such sudden resignation? "I honestly think it's because the Leonetti law satisfies them somewhere, because it allowed them to keep Vincent alive for six years and allows them a lot of court proceedings." The patient's nephew "hopes" now that this case will change the law. "The society is ready, all polls show it, it is the legislator who must solve this problem and provide a framework to ensure that such things do not happen again."
François Lambert pleads for euthanasia instead. Stopping treatment "is an extremely challenging process," he says. "On his body, the effects are very violent Physically, we see that there is a struggle and a departure that are preparing". He now plans to return to the hospital at night to say goodbye to his uncle: "I do not know if I will talk to him, I think I'll put music."