Prosecuted for not assisting a person in danger, Jean Mercier, 87, could be sentenced to 3 years in prison for having helped his wife to die.
Three years of suspended prison were required against Jean Mercier, 87, for helping his wife to commit suicide. The man, suffering from Parkinson’s disease and prostate cancer, appeared before the Saint-Etienne prosecution for non-assistance to anyone in danger. The public prosecutor, Jean-Daniel Regnauld, estimated that the octogenarian “had the possibility of acting and he did not do it because he was afraid of being reprimanded if she came back to life”, did he declare.
At the end of the hearing, Jean Mercier affirmed that there could be no half-measures. “If I am the man described by the prosecutor, I am a coward and I do not deserve a suspended prison sentence,” he told the court. The judgment will be rendered on October 27th.
Keeping a promise
In interview given this morning to our colleagues from Parisian, the octogenarian said he was shocked by the accusations against him. For him, “this act of humanity required a lot of courage” and if he had not done so, he would have been ashamed of him. He explains that he kept a reciprocal promise made 15 years earlier.
The charges against him date back to a morning in November 2011. His wife Josiane, 83, suffers from severe pain due to osteoarthritis and calmed down by morphine. She had also been depressed for about 30 years and had tried to kill herself several times. Members of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity, they had scheduled a departure for Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal. But too tired, she will give it up.
Convinced of having made the right choice
But this Monday, November 10, Jean Mercier feels in his wife’s voice that the complaints are different, “that she wanted to end it at all costs”. He agrees to bring her his medicines and to empty the bottle of morphine into a glass. A few hours later, he calls the doctor. But before he signs the burial permit, the octogenarian tells him everything. “Deep down, I had nothing to hide, I know she left in peace,” he says daily.
Even today, Jean Mercier is convinced that he made the right choice for him and his wife. Moreover, he is convinced that France will end up authorizing assisted suicide within 10 or 20 years.
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