Suffering from an incurable degenerative orphan disease, Alain Cocq did not obtain the possibility of benefiting from “active assistance” to die. After the presidential refusal this Friday, September 4, he decided to publicize his agony on social networks so that the Leonetti law on the end of life be reviewed.
- Unable to benefit from the Claeys-Leonetti law, Alain Cocq – suffering from an orphan and painful disease – was refused his request to benefit from “active assistance” to die.
- This member of the Association for the right to die with dignity has decided to publicize his agony on social networks.
This Friday September 4 at the end of the day, Alain Cocq announced that he wanted to let himself die. This 57-year-old man suffers from an unnamed orphan disease. He is the third person in the world in whom the walls of his 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. “In the final phase for thirty-four years”, he squeaks, his degenerative disease is painful. He has no hope of recovery or improvement in his health.
After thirty years of fighting against this degeneration which has handicapped his life, Alain Cocq has been bedridden for two years. He is fed by tube, his bowel and bladder emptied into pouches. “I’m at a stage where I have no more lifehe told journalists from France 2. I stare at the ceiling like a fool. No, it’s not my life… and it’s not the doctors, institutions etc. who will dictate my life.”
Alain Cocq asked, on July 20, the President of the Republic to “help him go in peace”. In particular, he asked that doctors be authorized to prescribe him a powerful sedative, which he would have swallowed himself in order to relieve the suffering caused by this degenerative disease. His request was refused in writing this Thursday, September 3 on the grounds that “the President is not above the law”.
Activism
Alain Cocq cannot benefit from the 2016 Claeys-Leonetti law on end of life. It allows a “deep and continuous sedation until death” but only if the person is suffering from an incurable disease and their vital prognosis is short-term, which is not the case here. Member of the Association for the right to die with dignity (ADMD), he decided to let himself die by ceasing to eat and refusing care except “comfort care” such as morphine.
He does not intend to die in silence and wants to publicize his case. Its goal : “show the French what the agony required by the Leonetti law is”. For this he announced that he wanted to film himself and broadcast these images live on social networks from Saturday morning. “There will be the video without the sound, as soon as I die the image will be rotated, he explains. For me it’s out of the question to show trashy images, the moment I die will be a deliverance, the fight will continue after me.” A stunt that could well be thwarted by Facebook. This social network may censor the video under the prohibition, in its internal rules, to share “images showing the violent death of one or more people”.
.
