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Without authorization of assisted death, a 57-year-old Frenchman suffering from an incurable disease wants to let himself die live on Facebook to denounce the insufficiency of the current law and demand the right to a “dignified death”.
The case has received strong media coverage in France since the patient, Alain Cocq, asked the president, Emmanuel Macron, to intervene to authorize a doctor to prescribe a barbiturate that would allow him to “leave in peace.”
“As I am not above the law, I am not in a position to grant your request,” Macron replied in a letter dated Thursday.
“His wish is to ask for active help to die, which is currently not authorized in our country,” added the president, nevertheless expressing his “personal support” and “deep respect” for Alain Cocq.
The Claeys-Léonetti law on the end of life, approved in France in 2016, authorizes deep sedation, but only in people whose vital prognosis is at risk “in the short term”.
Alain Cocq, who says he has been “in the final stages for 34 years” due to a disabling degenerative disease, cannot prove that his life will end soon.
Cocq, a “death with dignity” activist, has already traveled extensively in Europe in a wheelchair to advance his cause, and asked Macron for help in a July 25 phone call with a presidential adviser, but only now has he had a reply.
Alain Cocq decided to “let himself die”, stopping taking food, liquids or medicines, except for painkillers, from today “at bedtime”.
“I decided to say ‘stop’. Little by little, all the vital organs will be affected,” he explained to France-Presse, adding that, as it is, he is taking as much morphine as possible to combat the constant pain.
Alain Cocq suffers from an extremely rare degenerative disease that causes the walls of the arteries to stick together, resulting in ischemia (suspension of blood circulation in a tissue or organ).
“My intestines empty into a bag. My bladder empties into a bag. I feel full and my stomach knots. If I stare at the ceiling like an idiot waiting for it to happen, no.”
To “show the French what the agony of Leonetti is obliged to do”, Alain Cocq will broadcast his end of life live on his page, which he estimates will take “four to five days”, starting on Saturday morning. . On Facebook.
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