Four days after beginning his agony, Alain Cocq, suffering from an incurable disease, accepted palliative care and still wishes to die.
- Alain Cocq was transferred to Dijon University Hospital to receive palliative care. According to his representative, he asked for care to “leave in peace”.
- Suffering from a very rare disease, he announced that he was going to stop eating and taking his treatments to end his life
It is a slow agony that forces Alain Cocq to review the scenario of his death as he had imagined it. Suffering from an incurable orphan disease, he decided to end his life by ceasing to eat, drink and follow all his treatments, with the exception of “comfort care” such as morphine, from Saturday September 5. However, four days later, the 57-year-old finally agreed to be taken to hospital on Tuesday September 8 for palliative care. “I’m sorry but I need serenity to leave in peace” he said according to AFP.
Sophie Medjeberg, lawyer and agent for Alain Cocq to assist him in his end of life, checked with his client if this decision was indeed his, which he confirmed by telephone. “He challenged the refusal of careshe says. He was in too much pain, it was too hard. He still wishes to leave but in a painless process. It was too difficult.“
A frustrated end
Alain Cocq was surrounded by four carers, as well as his family – including his sister – and very close friends, before his hospitalization at the Dijon University Hospital (Côte-dOr). His representative was unable to specify Tuesday evening whether he was fed and hydrated again. According to her, he suffered from severe dehydration on Sunday and alternated phases of consciousness and unconsciousness. “It’s really painful for everyone, horrible and a shame to come to thisshe regrets. We are paying a heavy price for our cause.“
Activist for “the right to die with dignity”, Alain Cocq suffers from a very rare disease which does not bear a name. He is the third person in the world in whom the walls of the arteries stick together, which leads to ischemia, that is to say a reduction or even a stoppage of blood circulation in a tissue or an organ.
This very painful disease is incurable but does not condemn him to a quick death. However, the Claeys-Léonetti law on the end of life, adopted in 2016, only authorizes deep sedation for people whose vital prognosis is engaged “short term“As a result, the Dijonnais cannot resort to this law.
After requesting an exemption from the President of the Republic, which was refused because “the President is not above the law”, he decided to publicize his death to move the lines. The day before his death he announced his intention to broadcast his slow death on social media, but the video was quickly censored. Despite these difficulties, he would like the end-of-life law to be relaxed.
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