Euthanasia : a French regrets of having to go die in Belgium

The health magazine (Screenshot)

Published the 06.09.2017 at 14: 20

A A

Keywords :

end of vieeuthanasieBelgique

In September 2015, the announcement is dropped. Anne Bert, aged 57 years, was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly called lou gehrig’s disease. A neurodegenerative disease that is incurable, which causes progressive paralysis of all muscles. Patients find themselves trapped in their body, waiting for death.

An expectation that the writer refuses to condone. She has already lost the mobility of his arms, his head is not without his neck brace, and she needs assistance for all activities of daily life : eat, drink, wash… Very early after the diagnosis, she had made a decision : euthanasia. The French law does not allow, it will therefore, reluctantly, in Belgium.

A procedure framed

In France, the law Claeys-Leonetti 2016 provide for the possibility of terminally ill patients, deep sedation and continuous. But there is no question of euthanasia, contrary to the laws of belgium and the swiss, much more advanced on the topic of end-of-life.

“I am forced to flee my country to die,” she laments in an interview with The Obs. There, a law that allows assisted suicide and euthanasia in the hospital or home. “On the other hand, it is totally wrong to believe that it is enough to toquer to their doors and say “I want to die” in order for it to be successful, ” she says.

The procedure is in fact very regulated, ” she says. Doctors and psychologists are involved in the steps, which take about a year. The French physician of the writer has even been included in the loop.

Book posthumously

These last few months, the symptoms are accelerated. “I know that I’ll be drooling here a little time,” she continues. I cannot speak, nor walk, nor swallow. I am in the process of being walled alive. “

She took advantage of his last months of life to write a book, The last summer (Fayard), to tell of her struggle, and attempt to change attitudes and the law, although it claims to the contrary.
“I’m a very ordinary, a woman as there are thousands of others. I am neither an activist nor particularly courageous. What happens to me is not unfair, I simply made a bad pick. “

The book was published on the 9th October next, in all likelihood, a few days after his disappearance.