Requests for euthanasia by Chantal Sébire: cautious policies

Three years after the law on the end of life, the demand for euthanasia by Chantal Sébire, disfigured by an incurable disease, revival face an ethical debate which political leaders are of great caution. Report dilemma: mother 52 years living near Dijon, Ms. Sébire asked Wednesday to justice law, in exceptional cases, be euthanasiée by one of its doctors. Justice must decide Monday. This former teacher, a mother of three, based at Plombieres-les-Dijon (centre-east), suffers from a "esthesioneuroblastome", a tumor evolutionary sinuses and the nasal cavity. This very rare disease - 200 cases in the world in 20 years - is incurable and causes irreversible deformation of the face and suffering "excruciating", says Sébire,''said went aubout "of what it can bear . After an appeal for help in the media "that accompanies dignity in death," Ms. Sébire appealed to the justice of an "exceptional demand" for euthanasia. The President of the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Dijon (centre-east) to be decided Monday. This request is a first for the judiciary, but we are asking for the application of the law of 22 April 2005sur the rights of patients, known Léonetti Act, "his lawyer, Mr. Gilles Antonowicz. This law seeks to establish a right to "letting die", without allowing the doctors to practice active euthanasia. Its author, the UMP deputy Jean Léonetti, therefore believes that "the request does not fall within the framework of the law. This is a request for assisted suicide, not a request for assistance at the end of life." The work of Ms. Sébire "confined to a dead end, because in reality it breaks the dialogue between the medical profession and the patient," he continues. "If there was a genteel dialogue with physicians, we should find a solution calmed down," says Léonetti, moreover ready "to reflect on the major problems of society, and this is by no legislative decision, so abated, and not from individual cases." A half-word, elected in the Alpes-Maritimes pointed to the lobbying of the Association for the right to die with dignity (ADMD), which finds that "the law must adapt to the circumstances." At the top of the state, caution is in order. The health adviser of President Nicolas Sarkozy, in which Ms. Sébire wrote, offered him "a new notice to be given on his case by a panel of health professionals at the highest level that we ensure that all all the resources of medicine are exhausted. " Prime Minister Francois Fillon has made this humble confession: "The difficulty for me in this case is that there is the limits of what society can say, what the law can do". Custody of Sceaux Rachida Dati has been more incisive: "I believe that medicine is not there to administer lethal substances." In Parliament, the deputy PS of the Nièvre, Gaetan Gorce, who prepared the law Léonetti with Nadine Morano (UMP), now wishes to "assess the conditions of its application, and see what it solves or not." In extreme cases, Mr. Gorce suggests an "emergency euthanasia for the victims of incurable diseases, who suffer." This decision could be taken "by a panel of doctors and lawyers." "I am not going as far as the right to die, which is a notion that disturbs me," says Gorce. On a personal note, the former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius is "rather partisan move in the direction of the Belgian or Dutch law", legalizing euthanasia, "obviously avoiding any abuse." Strong religious beliefs, Housing Minister Christine Boutin took the opposite position: "We must say to the woman who ruined her face she can be loved and that their dignity than that." "We are in the process of using legitimate distress of this woman to try to legalize euthanasia. You really believe that her life is an act of love? It is a failure to respect the dignity of that person, "she was outraged.