The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Friday ruled in favour of France in a landmark life support case which will establish a precedent in Europe for "end of life" decisions.
The European Court ruled by 12 votes to 5 in the Lambert and Others v. France case.
The ruling said there would be no violation of Article 2 of the European Convention of Human rights, which protects the right to life, in the implementation of a previous judgement by the Conseil d'Etat, the highest administrative jurisdiction in France, which had rendered the decision to allow the removal of life support system for French citizen Vincent Lambert, Xinhua reported.
The court found that the so-called "Leonetti Law" of 2005, upon which the Conseil d'Etat based its judgement, "constituted a legal framework which was sufficiently clear to regulate with precision the decisions taken by doctors in situations such as that in the present case".
The law specifically allows the withdrawal of procedures that are "unreasonably obstinate", such as maintaining a patient's life despite an impossible prognosis.
As a result, the other 46 member states of the Council of Europe who have signed the European Convention and are under the ECHR's jurisdiction will be looking at the judgement and their own legal frameworks related to end of life decisions, especially in life support cases that reach the highest level of domestic courts.
In this case, Lambert, a tetraplegic who has been in a state of complete dependence since a road accident on September 29, 2008, has been the subject of controversy after his parents objected to a doctor's decision, made with the agreement of Lambert's wife, to end a feeding and rehydration programme.
ECHR documents explain that Kariger, the doctor in charge of Lambert, took the decision to remove life support in early 2013, after caretakers noticed increasing resistance to day-to-day care from the patient.
The ECHR met for a Grand Chamber hearing of 17 judges on January 8 of this year in order to study the case before rendering their judgement on Friday.
The affair may not be entirely finished for Lambert, however, as Kariger, who originally issued the decision to end life support programmes, is no longer in his post, and is legally the only person who can execute the medical order.
In the case that a new medical order is necessary to end Lambert's life support, Lambert's parents may use the opportunity to object again in French courts. There is reason to believe, however, that in such a case, the EHCR judgement will be used as a precedent to uphold the medical decision.
