Director Jean-Luc Godard, who died at the age of 91 on Tuesday, resorted to assisted suicide in Switzerland. A practice that is not unanimous in Europe. And particularly in France, where the subject reappears in the public debate.
Director Jean-Luc Godard resorted to assisted suicidea legal practice in Switzerland, “ following multiple disabling pathologies, according to the terms of the medical report “explained Patrick Jeanneret, the family adviser.
In Switzerland, the assisted suicide used by the filmmaker is authorized without being specifically regulated. An article of the Swiss penal code only stipulates that those who provide assistance in suicide must not be pushed by a “selfish motive”, a concept which nevertheless remains sufficiently vague for several Swiss associations such as Exit or Dignitas to offer to help those who wish to die legally.
On the other hand, inciting a person to suicide in order to obtain an advantage is punishable by five years in prison or a fine. Last year, nearly 1,400 people were accompanied to death in Switzerland. A figure that has been constantly rising for almost 20 years.
Assisted suicide, a vast debate in Europe
This announcement of the death of the Franco-Swiss director comes as the debate has just resurfaced in the French newsnext to a opinion issued on Tuesday by the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE). ” There is a way for an ethical application of active assistance in dying, under certain strict conditions with which it seems unacceptable to compromise “, explains in this document Alain Claeys, one of the rapporteurs of the opinion.
Among these strict conditions, the committee emphasizes in particular that assisted suicide must be open to people of legal age, suffering from serious and incurable illnesses causing physical or mental suffering, refractory and whose vital prognosis is committed in the medium term. Another recommendation: support the will of the person. That is, he “ ensure that this request is: firm, informed, constant and motivated. »
The members of the body also point to unacceptable situations in the implementation of palliative care throughout France. A problem which, according to the eight CCNE members who have a reservation on this opinion, could push some people to turn to assisted death, in the absence of suitable palliative care.
” This opinion first insists that the Leonetti law must be better known and better applied. There must be additional means for all palliative care in France, it is fundamental “says Doctor Jean-François Delfraissy, President of CCNE.
There are a number of situations where the Leonetti Law does not fully address. In particular, these are patients who are in a medium-term end-of-life situation, a few weeks or a few months. This raises the question: does our death belong to us and can we decide the conditions under which we wish, in certain circumstances, assistance in dying? CCNE is putting these extremely difficult questions on the table in an attempt to make progress on such a complex subject.
Jean-François Delfraissy, President of CCNE
However, CCNE’s opinion is not unanimous. Sara Piazza, psychologist in palliative care and intensive care at Saint-Denis hospital, and president of the local ethics committee of the hospital center, believes that the Leonetti law is sufficient, but too often poorly understood by caregivers and patients.
” Often, people have a representation of the end of life with what is called therapeutic relentlessness. However, the Leonetti law is made to protect patients from this relentlessness. They therefore have the possibility of refusing the treatments and in addition to being accompanied by treatments aimed at relieving pain, suffering, including if the treatment can lead to death. “says Ms. Piazza.
“We have a problem of unequal access to care”
According to Sara Piazza, the main problem remains access to care:
Today, access to palliative care is not possible for everyone. And there, we have a problem of unequal access to care. There are 26 departments in France where there is no palliative care unit. It is estimated that two thirds of patients who should benefit from palliative care do not have access to it. So, identifying that a care proposal is unsuitable when in reality, for the moment, people do not have access to it, is a bit of looking at the problem upside down.
Aware of the complexity of the subject, the members of the ethics committee also insisted on the absolute necessity of a national debate. On Monday, the President of the Republic announced the launch of a citizen consultation on the end of life which will deliver its conclusions in March with a view to a possible change of ” legal framework by the end of 2023. It excludes neither a parliamentary outcome nor a referendum.
And France is not the only European country where the question of the end of life is debated. The subject is regularly discussed In other countries such as Belgium or the Netherlands, where the legislation has changed in recent years to authorize euthanasia in a very controlled manner.
Godard and Switzerland, a story older than him
We sometimes forget that Jean-Luc Godard was not only French. He was also Swiss. His parents had settled well before his birth, in the midst of the First World War, on the shores of Lake Geneva. And he himself chose to settle in Switzerland during the Second World War.
The filmmaker will come back to it constantly as he goes back and forth with France. To flee the occupation, in 1940, therefore, then to flee military service, conscription, at the time of Indochina. He definitely put down his suitcases in Rolle, between Geneva and Lausanne, in 1977. Without really seeking contact with the population, but without fleeing it either, remembers the syndic, that is to say the mayor of Rolle, Monique Chougnat-Pugnalle:
In Rolle, Jean-Luc Godard nevertheless refuses the honors of the city, as he refuses those of the Swiss Film Academy. A discretion that sometimes borders on misanthropy. Like when he refused to open the door to Agnès Varda. The director will keep a bitter memory. The city of Rolle, much less for the one who remains its most illustrious resident. The authorities are now considering baptizing a re or a place named after Jean-Luc Godard.
In Rolle, the sacred monster of the cinema therefore led an uneventful life, halfway between the hermit fleeing the crowd and the pensioner crossed at the local café. And it is in this country, Switzerland, that he therefore chose to end his life through assisted suicide.
Correspondence in Geneva, Jeremiah Lance
► To (re) listen: Accents from Europe – The right to a free and chosen end of life divides Europeans