Disfigured French woman loses euthanasia bid

By Henry Samuel in Paris
Last Updated: 2:44am GMT 19/03/2008

A French woman suffering from an incurable facial tumour that has left her blind, disfigured and in agony, has lost her court battle to be allowed a doctor-assisted suicide.

A French woman suffering from an incurable facial tumour that has left her blind, disfigured and in agony, has lost her court battle to be allowed a doctor-assisted suicide.

Chantal Sebiré, a 52-year old former teacher and a mother of three, had hoped to set a legal precedent in France for patients seeking medical help to end their own lives.

She argued that she did not want to endure further pain as her condition worsened before she fell into a coma.

She asked for the right to "die with dignity, surrounded by her loved ones".

"One would not allow an animal to go through what I have endured," she said.

But the court in Dijon, Burgundy, ruled against allowing a doctor to supervise her in taking a lethal dose of barbiturates.

The judge said that while Mrs Sebiré's physical deterioration "merits compassion", French legislation did not permit him to grant her request.

Her lawyer said she would not appeal against the decision, but described it as "total hypocrisy" and called on President Nicolas Sarkozy to change the law on euthanasia.

Mrs Sebiré's plight has rekindled the right-to-die debate in France, which does not allow doctors to prepare or administer lethal doses.

More than 2,000 doctors and nurses signed a petition last year in which they admitted having helped patients to die and called for a change in the law.

Euthanasia is legal in Belgium and the Netherlands. Luxembourg is in the process of passing a law allowing it, while in Switzerland doctors can prepare the lethal dose but patients must take it on their own.

Mrs Sebiré, who has children aged 29, 27 and 13, was diagnosed nearly eight years ago with esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer.

France has been moved by pictures of the woman before and after her illness, which has left her face severely deformed.

Appealing on French television last month, she said she could no longer see properly, taste or smell.

She described how children ran away from her in the street.

She cannot use morphine to calm the intense pain in her swollen eyes because of the side effects, has difficulty eating, sleeps sitting up and often suffers haemorrhages.

Despite her heart-rending pleas, health minister Roselyne Bachelot said that "neither the medical world nor the government can promote euthanasia, no matter how serious the illness".

Sebiré's battle comes five years after another high-profile French case, the death of a young man who had begged for the right to die after a traffic accident left him deaf, dumb and paralysed.

Vincent Humbert died in September 2003 after his mother allegedly gave him a deadly dose of sedatives and doctors then cut his life support.

After his death, French parliament passed a law allowing families to request that life-support equipment for a terminally-ill patient be switched off, but not for a doctor to help end a patient's life.

"That isn't dignified or humane, or respectful of myself and my children," Mrs Sebiré said last week.

She said she would seek life-ending drugs abroad if not from France.

"I want to celebrate with my children, friends and doctors, before going to sleep for good at dawn," she said.

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