Charles Biétry, former sports journalist suffering from Charcot’s disease, prepared his assisted suicide in Switzerland

Charles Bietry made football on TV what it is, in the 1980s and 1990s, Canal+ first, then France Televisionsbefore going to L’EquipeTV then to Bein Sports. He launched dozens of young journalists into the profession. Her voice is recognizable among 1,000 people, she has accompanied the biggest sporting and football events. A voice that he has lost for some time. It is one of the symptoms of the terrible Charcot disease, a neurodegenerative pathology which progressively paralyzes the muscles, prevents speaking and eating., then breathe. “Before it was the pen, today it’s the computer”he wrote in an open letter published in L’Eteamwhich moved the world of sport.

“I managed to live well, I don’t want to die badly”

It is titled: “Let me die alone”. The one who was also briefly president of Paris Saint-Germain, welcomes the bill supported by Emmanuel Macron, but, above all, talks about him. From the announcement, the merciless doctors, his astonishing reaction (he is not afraid to die), the support of his wife, his two children, his four grandchildren. He also talks about his sporting activity, necessarily reduced to exercise cycling and splashing around in the swimming pool. Of these few months or years to live which he does not wish to spoil. “I managed to live well, I don’t want to die badly”, indicates the one whose initial plan is to go to Switzerland to end his life in the context of an assisted suicide. This trip may soon no longer be obligatory if the end-of-life bill, supported by the government, sees the light of day.