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DIJON: A Frenchman suffering from an incurable condition said on Friday that he plans to broadcast his death live on social media as he refuses to eat, drink or take medicine after President Emmanuel Macron rejected his request for euthanasia.
Alain Cocq, who suffers from a rare condition in which the walls of the arteries coalesce, said he believed he had less than a week left to live and would broadcast his death live on Facebook from Saturday morning.
He had written to Macron asking that they give him a substance that would allow him to die in peace, but the president responded by explaining that this was not allowed under French law.
Cocq, 57, has used her plight to draw attention to the situation of terminally ill patients in France who cannot be allowed to die according to their wishes.
“Since I am not above the law, I cannot comply with your request,” Macron said in a letter to Cocq, which the patient posted on his Facebook page.
“I cannot ask anyone to go beyond our current legal framework … Their wish is to request active assistance to die, which is currently not allowed in our country,” Macron said.
‘With deep respect’
In order to show France the “agony” caused by the law in its current state, Cocq told AFP that he would broadcast the end of his life on his Facebook page that he believed would come in “four or five days.”
He said he hopes his fight will be remembered and “curtailed in the long run” as a step forward to change the law. I would stop eating, drinking, and treating starting Friday night.
Macron said in his last that “with emotion, I respect your action.” And the president added a handwritten postscript that read: “With all my personal support and deep respect.”
An Elysee official told AFP that Macron wanted to praise Cocq’s commitment to the rights of the disabled.
Right-to-die cases have long been an emotional issue in France.
The most polarizing case was that of Vincent Lambert, who was left in a vegetative state after a traffic accident in 2008 and died in July last year after doctors took his life support off after a lengthy legal battle.
The case divided the country, as well as Lambert’s own family, and his parents used all legal means to keep him alive, but his wife and nephew insisted that he should be allowed to die.
In January, a French court acquitted the doctor who cut off life support systems in a verdict that was a formality after prosecutors said he “perfectly respected his legal obligations.”
