Reims (AFP)

Dr. Vincent Sanchez, who ordered the cessation of treatment of Vincent Lambert, defended Tuesday his decision in the Reims Criminal Court where the parents of this patient in a vegetative state assigned him for non-assistance to person in danger, ensuring that he had "respected the law".

"At every stage, I respected the law and at no time did I have the will, nor the intention to deviate from the law," explained Vincent Sanchez, the only one at the helm, facing questions. Jean Paillot and Jérôme Triomphe, lawyers for Vincent Lambert's parents, fiercely opposed to passive euthanasia.

"I wanted Vincent Lambert to be respected in his rights, it is to him that I think today, to his wife, to his family and also to his parents", continued the head of department of the University Hospital of Reims, who had resumed treatment stoppage on June 28th, Vincent Lambert dying on July 11th. "I feel like I have done my job."

"Why did not you answer our requests to transfer Vincent Lambert to a specialized care unit?", Inter alia questioned Mr. Triomphe.

"There was no medical need to organize his transfer," replied Vincent Sanchez. "If the whole family" who was torn up on this issue, "had agreed with the transfer, I would have done it.But the tutor of Vincent Lambert, his wife, who alone could ask, did not 'did not want to'

The doctor also reiterated that Vincent Lambert was, in his view, in a situation of "unreasonable obstinacy". In these circumstances, the Claeys-Léonetti law, passed in France in 2016, authorizes the cessation of treatment. This text also prohibits euthanasia and assisted suicide.

"Of course Vincent Lambert was in a chronic vegetative state, I based my decision on what was happening, what Vincent Lambert was, and what I thought was his decision, what I was feeling," he said. he insisted.

Dr. Sanchez was referring here to the confidences made by Vincent Lambert: according to his wife and some relatives, he had told them orally to prefer to die rather than live "like a vegetable", but he had not drafted an advance directive.

© 2019 AFP