Court ruling could see wider euthanasia

The European Court of Human Rights has allowed France to take a man in a coma off life support, in a case that has torn a family apart and could influence the extent to which euthanasia is endorsed by law across the continent.

The European court upheld a ruling by France’s top administrative court that authorised doctors to put an end to the intravenous food and water keeping Vincent Lambert alive.

Doctors say he has been tetraplegic and in a coma since a 2008 car crash. The European court ruled French law was sufficiently clear and there was no infringement of the Article 2 clause on the right to life in the European Convention of Human Rights.