a special issue of “Le Monde” on the end of life

2023-09-21 07:00:03

Special issue. In 2023, the Earth has 7% alive and 93% dead since the dawn of humanity, according to FiveThirtyEight, an American website specializing in statistics. Surprising, right? But, truth be told, why be surprised? This statistic clearly suggests the idea that the deceased are omnipresent in our lives. The dead surround us – that’s for sure -, accompany us, often haunt us, or sometimes suffocate us. Our street signs, our cemeteries, a good number of works of art evoke the deceased. We live surrounded by them; we must admit it and not try to bury them in an illusory process of mourning.

Read also: End of life: words to better understand the debate

The philosopher Vinciane Despret reminds us that there is no “that in Europe and America we believe that the dead are really dead”. Other civilizations deal differently with their missing people. People in ancient Egypt, for example, wrote to their dead. And now, another figure gives food for thought: by 2100, the Internet will have nearly 2 billion profiles of dead people, because we remain reachable on the Web, and therefore we do not die…

The writer Alphonse Allais (1854-1905) said: “Death is a lack of good manners. » The comedian Pierre Dac (1893-1975), who was not to be outdone, specified: “Death is, ultimately, only the result of a lack of education since it is the consequence of a lack of good manners. » We could still use this sentence today, as the question of the end of life remains at the heart of the news at a time when Parliament is preparing to legislate on this vital issue. There are many books, each more poignant than the last, which recount the agony of loved ones in shameful circumstances.

Read also: Story of an end of life faced with the inadequacies of the hospital: “I exhaust myself in procedures that do not succeed. My father is sinking”

These numerous testimonies and the results of the citizens’ convention on the end of life show that it is time to act. This is proof of the relative failure of palliative care and that we must go further than the Claeys-Leonetti law (2016). But it’s not that simple.

A middle way?

Just the words pose a problem: should we speak of “euthanasia” or “passive chosen death”, “assisted suicide” or “active chosen death”? Should we legalize euthanasia as in Belgium, the Netherlands or Spain, taking all precautions to avoid the abuses that some denounce about the experience of these countries? Or follow the path opened by Switzerland with assisted suicide? Or find a middle way, a French way for the end of life? The path is narrow, the political forces and associations are divided and are preparing a complex confrontation in Parliament, to the point that the terms of the law are slow to see the light of day.

One thing is certain: patients, families and the French in general are waiting for an improvement in active assistance in dying. This special issue of Monde, “Death in the face. How to legislate on the end of life”, produced in partnership with Les Rendez-Vous de l’histoire de Blois, takes up this highly sensitive and intimate subject and tries to see more clearly about life, death and beyond.

“Death in the face. How to legislate on the end of life”, a special issue of “Le Monde”, 100 pages, 10.90 euros.

Our forums on active assistance in dying

Find all of our end-of-life content on this page.

Marta Spranzi: “A duty of support that medicine must assume to the end”
Francois Larue : “The ambivalence of patients at the end of life must be respected”
Association for the right to die with dignity: “We, health professionals, say loud and clear that medical assistance in dying is care”
François Blot: “The legalization or not of active assistance in dying can only be sacrificial”
Jacqueline Herremans : “Respect for patient autonomy is the key word”
Theo Boer: “What is seen as an opportunity by some becomes an incitement to despair for others”
Association Renalo : “Delphine’s death is not a suicide, she did not take her own life by active means”
Conference of Bishops of France: “Isn’t the deepest expectation of all active help to live, rather than active help to die? »
Sadek Beloucif and Chems-eddine Hafiz: “Euthanasia and assisted suicide are a desecration of the act of care”
Denis Labayle : “That everyone can choose according to their convictions”
Antony Boussemart : “For us Buddhists, wanting to remedy suffering by ending life is to fight the wrong battle”
Emmanuel Hirsch: “Legislating on euthanasia is not a political emergency”
Laurent Frémont: “What if we applied the law before trying to modify it? »
Claude Evin : “Restoring the complex dimension of questions surrounding the end of life is today a citizen emergency »
Bernard Chicken: “We have the “right” to commit suicide, but it is forbidden to get help. What is the logic? »
Elisabeth Angellier, Carole Bouleuc and Sylvie Dolbeault: “With active assistance in dying, the violence will be shifted onto healthcare professionals”
Martine Lombard : “Let us offer a peaceful possibility of dying”
Isabelle Marin: “The ghettoization of elderly people can only lead to forms of mistreatment”
Marie de Hennezel: “We need ten times more hiring to ensure the dignity of the end of life of our elderly”
Alain Claeys: “This bill cannot be considered the only response to this issue”
Véronique Fournier: “Conservative forces are powerful in our country”
“We are parliamentarians The Republicans (LR) and we are in favor of active assistance in dying”
Claire Fourcade: “For widespread access to quality palliative care at home”
François Galichet: “It would be enough for the only product that allows a gentle death to be likely to be prescribed by doctors for any obstacle to disappear”
Jean-Luc Romero-Michel: “The health crisis has revealed the shortcomings of our end-of-life law”
Jean Leonetti: “Vincent Lambert has become, despite himself, the symbol of the end of life”
Philippe Bizouarn: “The conditions for collective deliberation are absolutely not met”
Brahim Bouselmi and Sandrine Bretonnière: “In the field of medical assistance in dying, only positive law would guarantee a choice to individuals”
Jean-Marc Sauvé: “Legalizing euthanasia does not mean giving up on the construction of our collective project? »
Denis Labayle : “Forcing a patient to live despite their desire to end it, does this constitute care or a new form of medical relentlessness? »
A collective of more than 90 healthcare professionals: “We, health professionals, must support patients without hope of recovery in their request for active assistance in dying”
Jean-René Lecerf: “The “malemort” today feeds on the inequality of access to palliative care”