“Why endure cruel agony when death can deliver you from a life that is no more than painful survival with no hope of healing?” In a forum published this Sunday, August 21, 2022 in The Sunday Journalthe actress and singer Line Renaud as well as the deputy Olivier Falorni revive the debate on the end of life and plead in favor of a “active assistance in dying“.
Indeed: despite the Claeys-Leonetti law of 2016 (which allows patients to make known their wishes about the end of their life via advance directives, and which prohibits “unreasonable obstinacy” at the therapeutic level), “our law still suffers from several major flaws and shortcomings” affirm the two signatories, who denounce the “hypocrisy” of the French State on the issue.
Clandestine euthanasia and departures abroad
Therefore, “Faced with the absence of an institutional solution, two types of response have emerged: exile in neighboring countries to die there and the practice of clandestine euthanasia in our country.“. Belgium and Switzerland thus welcome “more and more” of patients wishing to put an end to their life, while doctors would proceed each year to between “2000 and 4000 clandestine euthanasias (…) without the knowledge of patients and their relatives” in two-thirds of cases.
Finally, Line Renaud and Olivier Falorni point out that 96% of French people “are in favor of the legalization of euthanasia, all political sensibilities and age or socio-professional categories combinedaccording to a 2019 Ipsos poll.
