[Human handicap and self-determination: compassion and insensibility in the Vincent Humbert case].

This work has the objective of discussing human self-determination among handicapped people with unaffected cognitive functions. The background for the article is the history of 22 year-old Vincent Humbert, who became tetraplegic, blind and speech-impaired after a car accident. The young man intense suffering lasted for several months and resulted in an insistent request for euthanasia to his mother. Humbert's death, after his mother's unsuccessful effort to conduct the euthanasia, restates the polemics concerning euthanasia and assisted suicide. In this context, the article presents historical aspects of human handicap and critically analyzes Humbert's autonomy and euthanasia.