Lambert vs. Lambert: Over His Dead Body
On July 11, 2019, Vincent Lambert passed away at the Hospital of Reims. This is the final act of more than a decade of a familial, medical, legal, political and media saga that took unlikely twists and turns and lasted until the eve of his death. How did the issue of this young man’s life upend an entire society’s relationship to the question of life and death?
Episodes
Vincent Lambert, a young party boy, nurse, and father to a two-month-old daughter, was involved in a serious car accident. The resulting injuries are life-threatening. Finding themselves in uncharted territory, his loved ones try everything to wake him up, but in this complicated family, all pretexts of solidarity crumble and relatives gradually return to their own lives. Bitterness grows as the wounds of Vincent’s past resurface.
A doctor decides to stop Vincent’s feeding without informing his parents or siblings, sending shockwaves through the family. Some family members oppose the decision and enter into a legal battle armed with some of France’s most ruthless lawyers. Unable to resolve the situation, the courts send the case to the highest levels of the French legal system. The law is in danger, and Vincent’s case could affect the 1,700 other people in the country with severe brain injuries.
In street demonstrations and on social media, the Lambert affair unleashes passions on all sides, and nothing is off-limits. Under pressure and receiving death threats, Vincent’s doctor resigns. Vincent’s name is used by extreme camps in an effort to overturn laws. Behind the struggle between family members, powerful organizations turn Vincent into a cause, and part of the family loses control.
Eleven years after Vincent’s accident, his wife, Rachel, and his mother, Viviane, driven respectively by their vows and their convictions, are fighting to the end, using all their fortitude. Vincent Lambert is “unplugged” for the third and last time, and a divided France practically watches the death play out live.
