Right to life or death? Frenchman in vegetative state to shut out from life support

French doctors Monday began switching off the life support of a quadriplegic man who has been in a vegetative state for the last decade, in a hugely controversial case that has divided France, the lawyer for his parents said.

Jean Paillot, the lawyer for Vincent Lambert's parents who vehemently oppose ending his life, said doctors at the hospital in Reims had begun switching off the systems. "It is shameful, they (the parents) could not even embrace their son," he told AFP. Other family sources also confirmed the systems were being switched off.