” Paul and Maïté lived in Belgium, where euthanasia was decriminalized in 2002. They loved each other for 60 years, recount The Parisian. They learned in the same time interval that they were going to die, she from kidney cancer, he from blood cancer. And they made this decision to organize their joint departure. “It was not an old project for them, to die together, explains their daughter, Elise. Let’s say the situation turned out like this. It was not an easy choice. It’s a decision that we make as a last resort. “.
There was the first injection of sedative to put the couple to sleep hand in hand, continues The Parisian. The mother took one last look at her daughter before closing her eyes. There was the second injection. Paul left very quickly. Maïté resisted for a few seconds. Their faces were serene, peaceful, surrounded by their daughter, their son-in-law, the medical team. “It was love that was there that day. They gave each other a mutual gift,” says Élise, who believes that the conditions of their death allowed her to better overcome her grief. »
In 2023?
Will we soon experience similar scenarios in France? Without a doubt… ” Macron paves way for euthanasia law “, title Le Figaro. ” The President of the Republic will launch a citizen consultation on the end of life, the conclusions of which will be released in the spring of 2023. And upstream, the government will also engage in concerted and cross-partisan work with the deputies and senators. »
Comment of Figaro : “ It is to be hoped that this debate is not hostage to a truncated speech: the words have too often been captured and diverted by the defenders of the “right” to die “when I want”, “as I want” – even ” if I want”, according to the transhumanists -, whose only hope is to govern the bodies from the first day until the last hour. These brandish the word “dignity”. We should not forget that of “humanity”, point Le Figaro, and not denying man what makes his greatness, this interiority in which grows the cutting edge of the soul, which distinguishes him from a simple cluster of cells. »
Our perspective on vulnerability
“ The outcome may seem certain, the opponents would be wrong not to participate, relief The cross. There is still time to calmly say the reasons that drive them. (…) This is the moment, for example, to recall the meaning of a prohibition which – no offense to the simplifyers – is not only a function of religious convictions, but of political and philosophical options. What is ultimately at stake is our view of vulnerability, affirms The cross. The risk that we foresee, from the top of this slope on which French society is about to embark, is that the right to die will one day be transformed for the most fragile into an injunction to renounce life, for fear of weighing down their loved ones or the community. »
Faced with our most fragile intimacy
” Of course, the subject is dizzying, recognize Release. It is both philosophical and intimate. Collective and individual. It cannot be settled with a simple “yes” or a simple “no”. Organizing a citizens’ convention on the end of life is therefore a good idea. On one condition: that it is not yet another thing designed to push back the slightest evolution ad vitam æternam. The end of life is too important a subject to be used for political purposes. »
Free Charente wonders: ” will we be able to discuss death far from the mediocrity and Manichaeism of debates on everyday life? It is not forbidden to believe in it, responds the newspaper, especially since an extremely large majority of French people seem ready to change the current law towards the possibility of active assistance in dying. Euthanasia, assisted suicide or deep and continuous sedation until death, as the Claeys-Léonetti law has allowed since 2016 under very strict conditions: the delicate subject prohibits clear-cut positions such as the absence of real consultation. He puts us all face to face with our most fragile intimacy, concludes La Charente Libre, and this vertiginous question of our attitude towards death. Ours and those of our loved ones. »