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France rejects right-to-die plea
A French woman with a severely disfiguring and incurable facial tumour has been refused the right to die.
Chantal Sebire, a 52-year-old former schoolteacher and mother of three, had asked a court in Dijon, eastern France, to allow doctors to help her die.
But while the French have liberalised legislation governing euthanasia, the court ruled the law still did not allow doctors to actively end a life.
The case of Ms Sebire has however sparked intense debate and sympathy.
She suffers from an extremely rare form of cancer in the nasal cavity known as an esthesioneuroblastoma. Only 200 cases of the disease have been recorded worldwide in the past two decades.
Appealing on French television last month for the right to die, Ms Sebire said she could no longer see properly, taste or smell. She described how children ran away from her in the street.
"One would not allow an animal to go through what I have endured," she said...
Euthanasia
Published by You on 17 March, 2008 - 23:21
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I feel sorry for her, but I cannot understand why someone in her position - presently conscious and mobile - requests assistance in the act of suicide.
As for euthanasia in general, like abortion I am conflicted about it. In the case of abortion the obvious alternative is for the mother to offer the child for adoption. In the case of euthanasia there is no obvious alternative except to insist that someone has to live with their pain. Some Jewish authorities permit passive euthanasia, which is common in hospitals now, which involves ending all treatment barring painkillers. I don't see the difference.