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| - A French court on Tuesday acquitted a French doctor who last year switched off the life support systems of a Frenchman whose fate had for a decade been at the centre of a fierce controversy about the right to die. Vincent Lambert, 42, passed away in hospital in July after a decade-long battle that divided France and also his own family. Lambert's parents, who had waged a long battle to keep him alive, had brought a criminal complaint against Dr Vincent Sanchez, claiming he had failed in his duty to show assistance to a person in danger. The verdict by the court in the city of Reims was a formality after prosecutor Matthieu Bourrette already asked for the doctor's acquittal, saying he had "perfectly respected his legal obligations." Jean Paillot, the lawyer for Lambert's parents Viviane and Pierre Lambert, said it was "very probable" that the decision would be appealed. Lambert was involved in a near-fatal traffic accident in 2008 that left him a quadriplegic with severe brain damage which doctors said was irreversible. Left in a vegetative state, the question whether to continue keeping him alive artificially triggered a years-long legal battle that raged in the highest courts in France and Europe. "At every stage, I respected the law. At no moment did I have the desire or the intention to divert from the law," Sanchez said under cross-examination in a hearing in November. chd-sjw/mlr/spm
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