Denis Labayle, head of department for 25 years at the Center Hospitalier Sud Francilien, noted “great listening” on the part of the President of the Republic.
Emmanuel Macron organized this Thursday, March 9, a dinner of reflection on the end of life, inviting representatives of cults, doctors, elected officials and intellectuals. Doctor Denis Labayle, head of department for 25 years at the Center Hospitalier Sud Francilien, who was among the guests, noted “great listening” from the President of the Republic. defender of a “humanism at the end of life”the doctor assures us that “It’s up to the patient to choose”. According to him, it is necessary “go as far as euthanasia or active assistance in dying”. The practitioner also calls for better training of doctors, because “to treat is to accompany until the end”.
franceinfo: What did you say to Emmanuel Macron during this reflection dinner and what did he answer you?
Denis Labayle: The president was very attentive, and his advisers were very open. Everyone was able to speak, sometimes at length. There was a very large majority group of cult people, also palliative care who wanted that not to change, believing that everything was fine. A small minority who said that an exception was needed. And then I felt a bit alone sometimes to say that it’s up to the patients to choose. It’s good to listen but I hope that Emmanuel Macron will not listen too long, we have to go as far as a clear and clear law so as not to put the problem back on the table every 20 years.
In your opinion, should we go as far as euthanasia or active assistance in dying?
It go that far, yes. The Belgians are 20 years ahead of us. No one has a monopoly on moral values. I defend a humanism on the end of life. I learned it with my experience as a doctor but also with that of my brother, who died for a month. When I asked for the sedatives to be increased, I was told: “No, that’s euthanasia”. Today, with the application text of the Leonetti law, the indications are extremely restrictive. In the current state of the law, one dies of dehydration and the agony sometimes lasts unacceptably.
Former euthanasia case controller in the Netherlands, Theo Boer, spoke in the newspaper Le Monde, he is now worried that euthanasia applies to people with disabilities, people with psychiatric problems as well than to young children. Do you hear these warnings?
Nor should we dramatize the situation. The number of child problems is extremely small. There are a few cases and very special, very complicated cases. People are not crazy. We must stop pretending that there is absolute freedom in this area. No, we’re thinking, it’s complicated. And in the psychiatric field, it is even more complicated. People are not going to ask for assisted suicide systematically as soon as they are depressed. There will be safeguards. For example, there should be a conscience clause for doctors, as suggested by the College of Physicians. Nevertheless, I believe that there is a lack of training for doctors at the end of life and that this is a real problem because doctors tend to get away from these questions. And I maintain, unlike many of my colleagues, that caring for the sick goes all the way, to the death throes.