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Vincent Lambert

July 11, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Vincent Lambert, the disabled man a court ordered to be starved to death in a French hospital, died this morning. After nine days without food and fluids, showing a remarkable will to live despite the cruel death of thirst that doctors had prepared for him, France’s Terri Schiavo departed from this earthly life at 8:24 a.m. on Thursday, July 11. He died of heart failure induced by the malfunction of his kidneys in Reims University Hospital in the room where he had been kept under lock and key for the last six years.

Minutes after his passing, his half-nephew François, favorable to his relative being denied food and water, informed the media that Vincent had died.

Whatever his death certificate will say, Vincent Lambert did not die of natural causes, nor as a consequence of his serious handicap and brain damage. His death was deliberately brought about by a medical decision to deprive him of food and fluids that was approved by France’s highest courts and the European Court of Human Rights.

France deliberately ignored the request from the United Nations Committee for the Rights of Disabled Persons that asked for provisional measures for the end-of-life procedure to be lifted while it examined his case.

The last weeks of Vincent Lambert’s life were particularly distressful for his father Pierre, mother Viviane, and siblings David and Anne, who fought for his life over the last six years. They were given only limited time with their son and brother, alternating visits with Vincent’s wife and guardian Rachel and those family members who were favorable to his death, and only being allowed to approach him one at a time.

Their visits took place under close surveillance and they were promptly ordered to leave each time their visiting hours came to an end.

Contrary to the dispositions of the Leonetti “end-of-life” law of 2016, Vincent was given no deep sedation. During the first days of his ordeal, he cried and moaned a great deal, also showing signs of suffocation, to the horror of his family. Viviane Lambert told LifeSiteNews the procedure was “horrific.”

In a statement, lawyers Jean Paillot and Jérôme Triomphe said:

“Vincent has died, killed for reasons of State and by a doctor who has forsaken his Hippocratic oath. This cathedral of humanity that had been burning for a week under our powerless eyes has collapsed. No account has been taken of the dignity of this handicapped man, [who] was condemned because he was handicapped.

For the first dignity of all is to respect a person's life.

Part of our common humanity has left us today, because this heinous wrongdoing that is shaking the foundation of our laws and civilization affects us all.

The time has come for mourning and silent prayer. But also for meditation on this State crime.”