Vincent Lambert, 42, who had been a quadriplegic and severely disabled for more than 10 years, after he sustained severe head injuries in a 2008 traffic accident, was just euthanized by removal of all food and drink.

According to NC Register, before doctors started removing his intravenous feeding tubes from Vincent Lambert, his parents asked international authorities to intervene to avoid the death of the man, who requires artificial life support due to a severe injury.

“Vincent is not at the end of his life, he is not a vegetable,” his mother Viviane Lambert asked the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva July 1, Radio France International reports.

“I beg you, help us,” she said. “Without your intervention, my son, Vincent Lambert, will be euthanized because of his mental handicap.” She said it would be discriminatory to deprive a disabled person of food and drink.

Viviane Lambert, Vincent’s mother, holds a picture of her son on life support in 2015.

“He sleeps at night, wakes up during the day, and looks at me when I talk. He only needs to be fed through a special device and his doctor wants to deprive him of this so that he can die, while legal experts have shown that this is not necessary,” she said, according to Reuters.

Regardless of the fact that the man was still alive, the courts ruled to go ahead an euthanize him in what CNN referred to as a “passive” euthanasia, which is legal in France.

People pray for Lambert in front of the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris on July 10, 2019.

Lambert’s devout Catholic parents, who have been campaigning to keep him alive, halted the move hours later. An appeals court ruled in their favor, concluding that support could not be withdrawn until an ongoing report by the UN’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was completed.

French President Emmanuel Macron had rejected calls from the parents for him to issue a presidential decree to keep Lambert on life support.

The Pope also weighed in, tweeting after the initial court decision: “We pray for those who live with severe illness. Let us always safeguard life, God’s gift, from its beginning until its natural end. Let us not give in to a throwaway culture.”

We pray for those who live with severe illness. Let us always safeguard life, God's gift, from its beginning until its natural end. Let us not give in to a throwaway culture. — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) May 20, 2019

Last month, France’s Court of Cassation overturned the appeal court ruling, allowing doctors to stop feeding Lambert on June 28. Maître Spinosi, a lawyer representing Lambert’s wife, said that decision marked “the end of the dispute”.

“Speaking of Lambert’s passing on Thursday, his nephew François told BFMTV: “It’s a relief, of course, it’s not sad, it puts things back in order. I hope he rests in peace.” He added that he hoped that the funeral could remain intimate and that the family can now “get along and get closer,” noting the controversial long-running family legal battle.

In a statement after Lambert was euthanized through starvation, the Vatican expressed “sorrow” at Lambert’s death, reiterating the Pope’s view that “God is the only patron of life”.

The French healthcare system is one of universal healthcare largely financed by tax payers and used by the governments national health insurance. The model of finance for the French health care system is based on a social insurance model, taxation for the program is based on income.