This court decision could be a milestone in the debate on euthanasia in France. The criminal court of Angers (Maine-et-Loire) acquitted, Monday, May 2, a veterinarian prosecuted for having provided a false prescription for euthanasia products to a friend suffering from Charcot’s disease, who ended his life in spring 2019, reports The Western Mail.
In pronouncing the acquittal, the president invoked “state of necessity” pleaded by the defense lawyer, Antoine Barret. According to him, this decision is “a first”. “It could be that other courts will be seized of this question and, if they go in the same direction, it could make jurisprudence”he explains to franceinfo.
The prosecution can still appeal. He had requested four months in prison suspended at the hearing and had asked, at the start of the investigation, that the veterinarian be prosecuted for “murder and attempted murder”. The latter had benefited from a dismissal of these charges before finally being indicted for “false writing and use”, for having provided this false prescription.
At the hearing, he explained that he “first refused” to accede to the request of his friend, 59 years old and suffering from this neurodegenerative disease. Faced with his distress, he finally gave in. “He is not fighting any fight over euthanasia, but he has acted out of compassion and empathy seeing the state of health of this friend deteriorating”underlines his lawyer, specifying that the ex-wife and the entourage of the patient “were completely in agreement with what was done”.
Article 127-2 of the Penal Code provides for criminal irresponsibility for “the person who, faced with a present or imminent danger which threatens himself, others or property, performs an act necessary to safeguard the person or property, unless there is a disproportion between the means employed and the seriousness of the threat”.
“The court considered that the safeguarding of the human person was a notion that could be understood in a broader way and that it was necessary to integrate the notions of conscience, will, affect and suffering”, analyzes Antoine Barret. According to the criminal lawyer, this judicial decision is part of “a time and a climate that lend themselves to it”.
The subject of the end of life was one of the main societal issues of the presidential election, both for its supporters and its detractors. Before his re-election, Emmanuel Macron had estimated that a “citizens’ agreement”, such as the one put in place on the climate, would be adapted to settle this debate during his second term.