French Euthanasia Case Rumbles On

April 2, 2008

Very few people could have looked upon Chantal Sébire at the end of her life and not understood why the former schoolteacher wished to end it. Left horribly disfigured and in frequent torment from incurable tumors that amassed in her sinuses and skull, Sébire’s plea that doctors be allowed to legally terminate her life deeply moved French public opinion. It also prompted considerable reexamination of the nation’s laws prohibiting active euthanasia —reflection that has continued in the wake of Sébire’s March 19 suicide. But the passionate debate Sébire’s case sparked may well have unfolded differently had the French public been informed about one neglected aspect: that Sébire had continually refused treatment for her disease for nearly a half decade before it evolved to the terminal phase that resulted in her wanting to die. (TIME)