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Author of French "Right to Die" Law Opposes Efforts to Legalize Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

PARIS, France, December 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The author of France's "right to die" law, physician and parliamentarian Jean Lonetti, has denounced the clamor to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in a new book, noting that most people seek to end their lives due to untreated pain and isolation. The solution, he suggests, is to properly resolve the causes of the patient’s existential distress, rather than to assist in his death.

The book, "At the Light of Dusk: Accounts and Impressions of the End of Life," argues that recent high-profile cases of individuals seeking assisted suicide have been distorted by the French media, provoking new demands for legalizing the practice.

The work contains an anthology of accounts of individuals who confront terrible loneliness and suffering at the end of life, and are tempted to commit suicide.

One account, which Lonetti considers to be a typical case, is of a man who was afflicted with a terminal illness and began by seeking to kill himself, first in France and then abroad.  In the end, however, he found resolution through a palliative care service.

Leonetti writes disapprovingly of the case of Herve Pierra, the victim of a failed suicide attempt who lived for eight years in a state of minimal consciousness.  His parents received permission to kill their child by withholding food and water, effectively starving and dehydrating him to death.  However, notes Leonetti, the 2005 “right to die” law does not allow the denial of such basic forms of care. 

Lonetti's "right to die" law instead allows patients to refuse extraordinary medical care; but, as Lonetti notes in his book, it does not permit the withholding of "accompanying care" - measures such as feeding the patient and providing sufficient pain relief.

The problem, says Lonetti, is not that the current law is deficient, but that it has not been applied.  "A law voted for unanimously, which we know is badly understood, above all should be applied before it is modified," he writes.

Lonetti and three other parliamentarians are scheduled to deliver a report tomorrow outlining their recommendations for addressing the concerns raised by recent "hard cases" publicized in the French media.

Such cases have included that of Chantal Sebire, a woman who was horribly disfigured by a cancer she refused to treat with the surgery and drugs that she feared would make her condition worse.  After several years of neglect, the disease had deformed her face and she began to demand the right to commit suicide -- ironically with deadly drugs.  She refused all offers of palliative care and ultimately killed herself with an overdose of prescription medication.

According to a report in Le Point magazine, which obtained an advance copy of the report, the group will recommend that the French government grant up to 15 days of paid leave for relatives who are assisting a loved one in the final days of life.  They also recommend the passage of legislation to ensure that palliative care is universally available, and to require doctors to provide it in end-of-life situations. Finally, the group suggests the establishment of an agency to monitor end-of-life treatment.

The group will recommend that the 2005 law not be modified to permit euthanasia or assisted suicide. However, it will reportedly accept provisions for "exceptional" cases that could effectively depenalize such actions according to the discretion of judges.

Related LifeSiteNews Coverage:

Media Distorts New Medical "Hard Case" to Promote Assisted Suicide in France
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08041001.html

French Woman Loses Case in Bid to be Euthanized
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08031705.html

France Presidential Hopeful Royal Promises to Legalize Euthanasia
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022001.html

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