Paralysed man finally dies after mother's intervention

Vincent Humbert, who appealed to President Jacques Chirac for the right to die, finally had his own way yesterday.

M. Humbert, 22, paralysed, dumb and blind after a road accident three years ago, died in a hospital near Calais, two days after his mother placed barbiturates in his drip.

Marie Humbert, 48, now faces possible prosecution for murder or manslaugher. But Dominique Perben, the French Justice Minister, urged the public prosecution service yesterday to "show the greatest possible humanity" in her case.

Her attempt to kill her son provoked a debate on whether France should relax its laws forbidding euthanasia or assisted suicides. The medical team looking after M. Humbert at the hospital at Berck-sur-Mer said yesterday that they had collectively decided to "limit active therapeutic" efforts to keep him alive.

Last year M. Humbert wrote to M. Chirac asking him to allow him to die. His mental abilities were unimpaired by the accident but he was barely able to move. In a book, written with his mother's help, he appealed to be released from what he described as a "living death" and "life of shit".