Have at it.
Posted on 03/27/2008 10:14:02 AM PDT by Hildy
A severely disfigured French woman, found dead this month after a court rejected her request for euthanasia, took a lethal overdose of barbiturates, a prosecutor said on Thursday.
Former schoolteacher Chantal Sebire, 52, suffered from a rare and incurable tumour which severely deformed her face and caused her to lose the sense of smell, taste and finally her eyesight.
Her body was found at her home in Plombieres-les-Dijon on March 19, two days after the high court in the eastern French city of Dijon decided current French law did not allow her doctor to prescribe her lethal drugs.
"The tests conducted reveal the presence in the blood of a toxic concentration of barbiturate, Pentobarbital," prosecutor Jean-Pierre Alacchi told reporters in Dijon.
"The concentration found is three times the lethal level for this product," he said, adding that investigators were working to establish how Sebire obtained the drug, which is not delivered by French pharmacies.
The drug Pentobarbital is commonly used for animal euthanasia and can be legally prescribed for assisted human suicide in Switzerland, Belgium and the US state of Oregon.
In her request to the high court, Sebire said she wanted to put an end to "atrocious suffering" and an irreversible worsening of her condition, called an esthesioneuroblastoma.
The mother-of-three had said she would not appeal the decision and that she would find life-terminating drugs through other means.
Before-and-after pictures of Sebire, along with her account of frightened children who ran away at the sight of her, attracted a strong outpouring of sympathy in France.
The case prompted doctors, politicians and intellectuals calling for a debate on a change to French law to allow euthanasia in exceptional cases.
Legislation adopted in 2005 allows families to request that life-support equipment for a terminally-ill patient be switched off, but does not allow a doctor to take action to end a patient's life.
Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are the only European Union countries that currently allow active euthanasia.
Have at it.
Should’ve just skipped the whole court thing.
Have at it? OK, simple. Two things:
1. Hard cases make bad law.
2. If you want to kill yourself, you can find a way to do it privately -- this woman did. Don't drag either the medical profession or the government into this.
God bless this poor soul = none of us can judge her - unless we have or are suffering from the same...
Its really sad for her. To have that disease and then to give up hope.
I have to wonder why we only seem to see these severe cases in countries with socialized medicine. Certainly people in America have this kind of cancer but I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone disfigured like this.
I think they should bring her to trial anyway. We don’t want the dead to think they’re above the law...
This story was posted recently, and on that previous thread an interesting fact came out: The woman’s condition WAS treatable, with a very high rate of success. It wasn’t treated early on because, well, that’s socialized medicine for ya.
Agreed completely!
(Not to mention that her disease was treatable in the early stages, but the socialized treatment didn’t serve her very well)
I agree with you in cases like this.
On a brighter note, a woman flung herself off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge yesterday and she LIVED. She was crying for help and sometimes suicide fails. Being in the chilly water gave her time to think. Instinctually, she yelled for help. She gets a second chance. I hope she makes the most of it.
I watch the medical mysteries on the Discovery Channel. I am not a doctor... There are lots of programs where the abnormalities are removed. She had problems in addition to her pain and her appearance i.e. severe depression. Why didn’t they treat that for starters?????
This is what hillarycare will get us.
Is this tumor only inoperable in countries with socialized medicine?
I recall from a previous thread that U.S. hospitals have an 80% + success rate treating this “rare and incurable” tumor.
In her position I would have wanted the surgeon to take a risk and cut. But you usually can’t do that when the government controls health care.
Or Obamacare.
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