A French doctor who helped a severely disabled man to die could be charged with premeditated murder.
Frédéric Chaussoy, the head of intensive care at the hospital of Berck-sur-Mer, in Pas-de-Calais, made the decision at the end of September to switch off the life support machine of 22 year old Vincent Humbert after consulting his team.
State prosecutors are also questioning Mr Humbert's mother, Marie Humbert, 48, who tried to help her son commit suicide by injecting him with barbiturates but who only succeeded in pushing him into a coma.
The incident gained much publicity after Ms Humbert announced on television that she intended to help her son carry out his wish to die.
Vincent Humbert, a fireman, lost the use of his four limbs, his sight, and speech after a traffic crash three years ago.
He made several attempts to end his life and asked President Jacques Chirac to make an exception to the law banning mercy killing in his case. He also wrote a book, I Ask for the Right to Die .
In his book—which was published the day before his death and which has become a best seller—he described his life as a "living death."
Dr Chaussoy immediately took responsibility for his action. "It was a sad but carefully thought out decision taken with serenity and with respect for the patient," he said last week.
"I could have pretended he had a complication," he said. "We know very well how to lie; we do it regularly and could have continued with that traditional hypocrisy."
The lawyer representing Marie Humbert, Hugues Vigier, has condemned state prosecutors for considering charging Dr Chaussoy with "premeditated poisoning," a crime that carries a life sentence.
"Why is it possible to understand the gesture of love of a mother and not the gesture of humanity of a doctor?" he asked, referring to the more lenient charge of administering a toxic substance that state prosecutors are reported to be thinking of bringing against Ms Humbert.
Opinion polls published in Le Parisien indicate that most people in France believe Marie Humbert was right to help her son commit suicide.
However, the minister of health, Jean-François Mattei, has made it clear that he opposes any radical change to the law banning assisted suicide in France.
Calling euthanasia a "bad response" to the suffering of terminally ill patients, he said that more palliative care was needed to help patients cope with incurable diseases. "There might be transgressions, but transgressions cannot be written into the law," he said.