“The Death of the Wolf” retraces the journey of a woman suffering from no pathology who decided to end her life. This documentary broadcast Wednesday on France 3, in which we see her filmed for months by her son, questions the delicate subject of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
“We are going to play down death (…) Everyone dies. From this observation, a person who will be 76 years old next year, that she dies, there is nothing tragic about it. is in the order of things.” This is how Jacqueline Jencquel, a convinced activist of assisted suicide, not suffering from any pathology, justifies her desire to die in The Death of the Wolfa documentary directed by her son, Tuki Jencquel, and broadcast on Wednesday July 12 at 11:25 p.m. on France 3. To dispose entirely of her life, by deciding the day of her death, was her desire, which she realized on March 29, 2022 .
“I fight for individual freedoms”
This 78-year-old Parisian, very involved in the Association for the right to die with dignity (ADMD), of which she was vice-president, expressed her desire to end it in 2018, even setting the date of his death in January 2020 in Switzerland. A publicized announcement which at the time had revived the debate on euthanasia. It was only two years later that Jacqueline Jencquel put an end to her existence. After postponing the day of his death several times, initially wishing to live “one last summer”, according to her words, she once again delayed the date, at the announcement of the birth of her grandson. One of his three sons put these two years to good use by deciding to take his camera and question his mother, who opened up without taboos.
Escaping the vagaries of old age, illness, suffering… These are the arguments put forward by Jacqueline Jencquel in the film to explain her choice to die in good health. A way also, according to her, to avoid becoming a burden for her children.
“Instead of suffering from it, you should be happy, if it happens as I expect it to happen, that I don’t die in a terrorist accident (…), that I don’t die of a horrible disease . It’s a gift I give you.”
Jacqueline Jencquelin the documentary “The Death of the Wolf”
Her unshakeable will to die and her hard-line attitude made Jacqueline Jencquel hope that her decision would move the lines in France. “It may still be a ‘buzz’ if I get there, and maybe it will change the law in a lot of countries,” she confides in her son’s documentary. Because on the legal level, the thorny question of the end of life and assisted suicide has hardly evolved since 2016 and the Claeys-Leonetti law. The subject divides and questions both citizens and the political class.
During his 2022 presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron introduced this theme into his program. Re-elected for a second term, he launched, in October 2022, a citizen consultation on the end of life, which came out in March in favor of active assistance in dying. Following these conclusions, Emmanuel Macron announced that a bill should see the light of day before the end of the summer.
Would Jacqueline Jencquel have welcomed this decision? “I fight for individual freedoms and for the possibility of not being dictated to me, until when I must live and dieshe explains in the documentary. Old age is inevitable, death is inevitable, suffering is not.”
* The documentary The Death of the Wolf, directed by Tuki Jencquel, is broadcast on Wednesday July 12 at 11:25 p.m. on France 3 and on the france.tv platform.