Man at centre of French euthanasia debate dies after mother rigs IV

AFP ^ | Fri, Sep 26, 2003

[presidio9]

A severely handicapped man at the centre of debate in France over euthanasia died, two days after his mother put an overdose of sedatives in his intravenous drip.

Vincent Humbert, a 22-year-old former fireman who was quadriplegic, blind and dumb, hit the headlines in December when he sent a letter to President Jacques Chirac pleading for a dispensation from France's criminal ban on mercy killing.

His mother Marie Humbert, who has waged a passionate campaign for her son's right to die, gave him the overdose in hospital on Wednesday -- three years to the day since the road accident that caused his injuries.

Doctors in the northern town of Berck-sur-Mer said they decided to withhold treatment Friday morning after Vincent sank into a coma. "The medical team that has cared for him for three years took their collective and difficult decision in complete independence," they said in a statement.

Marie Humbert, 48, was taken into custody by police Thursday on suspicion of "attempted murder" but allowed out to be at her son's side and to receive psychiatric care. She was expected to be placed under judicial investigation for her role in her son's death.

However Justice Minister Dominique Perben issued a statement Friday asking prosecutors "to act with the greatest humanity in applying the law, taking into account the suffering of the mother and the young man."

The Humbert affair was on the front page of most French newspapers Friday, prompting agonised debate over the ethics of euthanasia.

With a headline reading "Let us end this hypocrisy," the left-wing daily Liberation said it was time for the law to recognise exceptional cases under which mercy killing might be justified.

"Thanks to Marie Humbert, those in political power will perhaps understand this. And then they can thank her," it said.

Though euthanasia is banned in France, it is allowed in tightly defined circumstances in the Netherlands and Belgium. In Switzerland assisted suicide is legal and there are assocations which help terminally ill patients to take the step.

According to the British medical journal The Lancet, euthanasia is secretly practiced on a large scale across Europe, with doctors consulting with families before hastening a terminally ill patient's death.

Between one and 3.4 percent of deaths in Europe happen this way, the journal reported.

Marie Humbert had signalled her intention to try to kill her son this week with a series of media interviews in which she said his death was "programmed".

Vincent's death was timed to coincide with the publication of his book entitled "I ask you for the right to die," in which he explained why he wanted to end his life. He was able to communicate to write the book by pressing his thumb against a journalist's hand.

"I will never see this book," he wrote in it, "because I died on September 24, 2000... Since that day, I do not live. I am made to live. I am kept alive. For whom, for what -- I do not know. All I know is that I am the living dead, that I never wished for this false death."

"I would so much like to find a way to snuff it, to leave before I am totally cracked, spiteful or bitter. The more time passes, the less I want to live out my days as a shrivelled vegetable on a hospital bed. It is not possible," he wrote.

[presidio9]

I can not think of many things more ghoulish than a mother euthanizing her severely depressed son.

[presidio9]

My apologies for the 2nd through 12th lines of the article. I got a bit emotional about this story and did not proof-read it before posting...

[bootyist-monk]

I thought the French killed their unwanted by turning off their ceiling fans and hiding the ice.

[Puppage]

C'est la vie, Owen

[ikka]

Are any of Helen Keller's writings available in France? Just asking.

[ellhow]

I have to side with the mother. It would be a crime to let the guy live another 50 years in this state. Surely free people can kill themselves, and if they don't hae the physical ability to do so, they can get someone else to?

[presidio9]

People who want to kill themselves are clinically depressed. They need psychological and spiritual guidance, not facilitation. I can sort of understand, if not condone people who want to die because they are in pain. A person who wants to die because he is handicapped and has lost his will to live is a different story. The ability to see or walk does not make us human. Our minds do. This young man's mother is a selfish monster.

[alisasny]

All the guidance in the world and he still would be bedridden as a quad and deaf. No counseling could cure that horrible quality of life. I am sure it was tried for 3 years.

[presidio9]

Dead is dead. We have no way of knowing what medical advances will occur in the next 50 years, and now he never will. I guessing this young man recieved no spiritual guidance before making his decision.

[syriacus]

From the article:

I died on September 24, 2000... Since that day, I do not live.

I don't understand....
How did he write a book if he was dead?

[GovernmentShrinker]

People who want to kill themselves are clinically depressed. They need psychological and spiritual guidance, not facilitation.

Classifying those who don't agree with the party line as mentally ill is a time-honored totalitarian practice. The Soviet government locked up its opponents in mental hospitals. The Chinese government still does. Free people make their own decisions about their own lives. It's one thing to allow state intervention when someone is briefly threatening suicide after a traumatic event or for no apparent reason. But forcing someone to live against their will for years or decades is as ghoulish as it gets.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I guessing this young man recieved no spiritual guidance before making his decision

No, you are assuming that if he got what YOU think is proper spiritual guidance, he would have agreed with YOU about what to do with HIS life.

[syriacus]

From

Disabled man dies after mercy killing attempt

Former Health Minister Bernard Kouchner...called Marie Humbert an "admirable mother."

[syriacus]

Free people make their own decisions about their own lives

...And get their mothers to kill them

[presidio9]

Quick question:

Your sister gets dumped by her boyfiend and decides that there is nothing left to live for. You try everything to snap her out of her funk, but she is determined to take her own life. She asks to borrow your gun. Do you give it to her? She is an adult, and she has made a conscious decision. Who are you to determine wheter hers is an appropriate course of action?

Does the fact that the youn man in France was severely handicapped influence your opinion? Do you realize that many many people have lived fruitful and productive lives in similiar conditions to his own? Are their lives somehow less meaningful? Where do you get off comparing my value for the human life to policies of the Soviet Union and Communist China? It is you who need to rethink your priorities.

[WOSG]

"People who want to kill themselves are clinically depressed. They need psychological and spiritual guidance, not facilitation. "

This is likely true in many cases but not universally true.

"Classifying those who don't agree with the party line as mentally ill is a time-honored totalitarian practice. "

And invoking 'hitler' on views you dont share is an old but discredited rhetorical technique. It's not a 'party line' that suicidal people depart from - it's the natural inclination that favors life over death. It's a genuine concern to ask if such behavior is truly rational or irrational.

" The Soviet government locked up its opponents in mental hospitals. "

This is known as a red herring. Your 'logic' leads to: " The USA locked up John Hinkley as deranged. The USSR locks up political opponents as deranged. Therefore, John Hinkley is a political prisoner." HUH???

[presidio9]

No, you are assuming that if he got what YOU think is proper spiritual guidance, he would have agreed with YOU about what to do with HIS life.

I am going to go out on a limb and assume that you are a Libertarian, based on your screen name and your opinions. Do you not realize that the Consititution that you know and love is based first and formost on the judeo-Christian philosophy of respect for the sanctity of human life?

[syriacus]

Classifying those who don't agree with the party line as mentally ill is a time-honored totalitarian practice.

True.

But how does that apply here?

Most likely, the guy was clinically depressed.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Perhaps, but given his situation, it was perfectly rational to be depressed and want to die, and there was apparently no realistic hope that his situation would change. That's a very different situation than someone who is suicidal over the recent death of a relative, or a teenager who is suicidal over a failed romance.