France euthanasia case: Patient Vincent Lambert has died - family

Brain-damaged French patient Vincent Lambert died on Thursday, just a few days after doctors removed life support, his family said. His case sparked an international debate about euthanasia and has also been taken to the United Nations.

Vincent Lambert has been in a vegetative state since a car accident in 2008. The crash left him a quadriplegic with severe brain damage that doctors say is irreversible. But the question of whether to continue keeping him alive artificially has divided his family and the whole world.

Doctors had begun taking him off life support on July 2, just days after a final ruling by France's highest appeals court on a case which has taken the warring Lambert family to France and Europe's top courts over the past six years.