And now ? After nearly eleven years of treatment, nine days of deep sedation and forty legal remedies, Vincent Lambert, a tetraplegic patient in a vegetative state, died Thursday, July 11. His death puts an end to the dramatic mediatic-judicial battle that has torn his family for six years.

Period ? Not quite. The public prosecutor's office in Reims on Thursday opened a preliminary investigation for attempted homicide after the complaint filed by the lawyers of Vincent Lambert's parents, traditionalist Catholics, who describe his death as a "state crime". "Vincent is dead, killed by reason of State and by a doctor who has given up his oath of Hippocrates (...) .The time is mourning and meditation .It is also the meditation of this crime of "State," said in a statement My Jean Paillot and Jerome Triomphe, lawyers for Pierre and Viviane Lambert, opposed for years to stop treatment of their son.

Press release of #VincentLambert's parents' lawyers:
"Vincent is dead, killed by reason of State and by a doctor who has given up his oath of Hippocrates. Https://t.co/7YiRlh6bHW pic.twitter.com/Oo2dRAlM76

I support Vincent (@SoutienVincent) July 11, 2019

"Legal consequences"

The case "ends today," said François Lambert, the nephew of the 42-year-old former nurse. "It's a relief, it's not sad [...], you had to stop your treatments, repeated twists and turns that did not help much."

Will the legal battle still make a difference on the legal front? "Absolutely not," regrets for his part Philippe Lohéac, delegate general of the ADMD, the Association for the right to die with dignity, interviewed by France 24. "In terms of legislation, no amendment to the Leonetti law on the end of life in 2005 did not settle the fate of Vincent Lambert, which proves that the current law is not a good law, "rebels the activist who pleads for a legalization of euthanasia.

A long ordeal of 11 years ends for #VincentLambert. All my thoughts are with him, his wife Rachel, all his family and loved ones. The legislator must finally take responsibility so that never again a family lives such a drama. https://t.co/k6GhaWZrbO

Jean-Luc Romero (@JeanLucRomero) July 11, 2019

Precisions in the law

Admittedly, the family drama of Reims did not allow doctors to make lethal injections, but the thirty rulings handed down by the courts nevertheless provided details in several areas.

In 2014, the Council of State considered artificial nutrition and hydration as "treatments", thus paving the way for the possibility of stopping them. Then, in June 2019, accepting in particular that Vincent Lambert's wife became the legal guardian, the judiciary again changed the initial law on guardianship of vulnerable persons. Until then, the justice considered that in case of family conflict, it was better to entrust the guardianship to a third party or an association.

Finally, clarifications were made at the end of June 2019 during the most recent judgment by the Court of Cassation, which decided not to make the right to life an individual freedom. At the time of his requisitions, the Attorney General François Molins made sure that the texts could not call into question the law on abortion.

The analysis of Emmanuel Hirsch, professor of medical ethics

Changes too timid in the eyes of Philippe Lohéac, delegate general of the ADMD. "French law should take the example of Belgian legislation, which provides universal access to euthanasia and gives priority to spouses, then brothers and sisters and finally parents to decide the fate of a loved one."

To read: "Case Vincent Lambert: 'Too few French have drafted their advance directives'"

In addition to the legal aspect, it seems that the media coverage of the case Vincent Lambert has allowed the French to question and make their arrangements. At the beginning of the 2010s, less than 5% of the French had written in advance advance directives on their end of life. In 2019, 13% of them expressed their will through the document posted by the government. And running in June, when the case Vincent Lambert was highly publicized, the platform dedicated to the site service-public.fr has recorded 20 times more connections than the previous month.

French people more open to euthanasia

Survey after poll, the French have also seemed less and less reluctant on the issue of euthanasia. According to an Ifop survey published in April, 96% of them are in favor.

So much for the consequences of Vincent Lambert. The rest should not change in the coming months because the end-of-life issue has been excluded from the bioethics discussions and is not included in the draft bill that will be presented in the Council of Ministers on July 26th. .

For now, the current government, officials of the Ethics Committee and promoters of the 2016 Advance Directives Act consider that all provisions are already present in the law to respond to the diversity of situations. Advocates of the legalization of euthanasia still intend to put the issue back on the agenda at the end of 2019. The case Vincent Lambert promises to talk about her again.