how the Vincent Humbert affair mobilized consciences

2023-07-18 07:00:00

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CHRONIC. The Vincent Humbert affair shook France in the early 2000s and laid the foundations for a new social debate on active assistance in dying.

By Stephane Demorand

The death of Vincent Humbert on September 26, 2003 reignited the debate on euthanasia and the end of life in France.
© JACQUES DEMARTHON / AFP

Published on 07/18/2023 at 09:00

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Ln September 24, 2000, young firefighter Vincent Humbert, then 19 years old, was the victim of a serious road accident. After six months in a coma, the young man woke up quadriplegic, mute and blind, but perfectly lucid, only his thumb and his brain were working. The young man took the initiative to write to the President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac, to ask him for the right to die, but the latter replied that he “did not have the right”.

READ ALSOActive assistance in dying: an ethical or legal question? In a desperate gesture, Vincent Humbert’s mother injected him with a very strong dose of sodium pentobarbital (barbiturate) which led the young man into a deep coma. He was then transferred to the intensive care unit of Dr Frédéric C.

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