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PARIS (Reuters) – A Frenchman suffering from a rare and incurable disease is broadcasting 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, 57, who has suffered from a degenerative disease for 34 years, has said that he will broadcast his death live on Facebook starting Saturday morning.
“So I finished my last meal … I toast to his health for the last time. The road to liberation begins and believe me, I am happy,” Cocq said in a video posted Friday night and filmed from his medicalized bed. at his home in Dijon, eastern France.
“I have made a decision and I am at peace,” he added.
He had written to Emmanuel Macron asking him to administer a sedative to allow him to die in peace, but the president responded by explaining that this was not allowed under French law.
Neighbors France, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands have adopted laws that allow medically assisted death in some cases. But France has resisted that step, partly under pressure from the Catholic Church.
“As I am not above the law, I cannot comply with your request,” Macron said in a letter to Cocq, which the Frenchman posted on his Facebook page.
“His wish is to request active assistance to die, which is currently not allowed in our country,” Macron said.
The Claeys-Leonetti end-of-life law, adopted in 2016, authorizes deep sedation, but only for people whose prognosis is threatened in the short term.
Cocq has called for a change in French law to allow medically assisted death in cases like his.
He was drip fed and his digestive system hooked up to a colostomy bag. His condition has caused his brain aneurysms and he experiences seizures if he doesn’t take his medicine. You said you are in constant pain.
Macron added a handwritten postscript to his letter, saying: “With all my personal support and deep respect.”
(Reporting by Jean-Stephane Brosse, Dominique Vidalon; Edited by Ros Russell)
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