“I admit that I am a little amazed by these remarks, because if this is the French model announced by the President of the Republic, we do not want it. We do not want a fourth Leonetti law”, reacts on Saturday April 8 on franceinfo Jean-Luc Romero-Michel, honorary president of the Association for the right to die with dignity (ADMD), after the remarks made by the Minister of Health in the newspaper Le Monde. Speaking for the first time on the end of life after the citizens’ convention dedicated to him, François Braun said he was in favor of “reinforcement” of the Claeys-Leonetti law. For him “Accompanying death is not killing”. Jean-Luc Roméro calls on the government to respect the citizens’ convention, he hopes it will not “despise the people once again, as they are currently doing on pensions”.
franceinfo: “Accompanying death is not causing death”, it is with these words that the Minister of Health spoke in Le Monde for the first time on the end of life after the submission of the report of the citizens’ convention on the subject. What do you think of these words?
Jean-Luc Romero-Michel : I admit that I am a little amazed by these remarks, because if this is the French model announced by the President of the Republic, we do not want it. We don’t want a fourth Leonetti law. I wonder how a minister who has never been elected can he so despise 75% of the members of the citizens’ convention and 9 out of 10 French people who for years, in all the polls are constant or even today today, a majority of MPs who are in favor of active assistance in dying. I hope that the government will not follow this advice and despise the people once again, as it is currently doing on pensions.
François Braun is campaigning for a change in the law and not necessarily for new legislation. For you, do you absolutely need a new law?
We forget it because it is often said that there were two Leonetti laws. In fact there were three, one in 2005, in 2006 and one in 2016 and we are still there. These are always laws that are made by doctors where all the control remains with the doctors. We need to change logic. It must be the person who is in bed who decides. What more do they want us to do than deep and continuous sedation if not to finally allow euthanasia and assisted suicide? For deep and continuous sedation, we put someone to sleep, we remove the gastric tubes that allow him to eat, I find it difficult to understand the difference between that and euthanasia. The difference is that in France sedation can last three weeks with people who find themselves in a horrible situation. Continuous sedation is good for someone who is going to die in the hours that follow, but afterwards it is a therapeutic relentlessness.
Do you warn the government to respect the work of the citizens’ convention?
We must listen to the French otherwise it would be useless to do another citizens’ convention, to have parliamentarians in favor of carrying out assessment missions with Olivier Falorni and tell us: ‘we’re just going to fix it, make a few small regulatory texts’ . No, that’s not what the French want. Those who accompany people to Switzerland, those who go to Belgium know this. There is a moment to draw conclusions. We heard Charles Biétry who has Charcot’s disease. The end, he does not wish to have it even if he wants to live as long as possible. He will be forced to flee his country. Those who flee are those who have the knowledge or who have the means. The vast majority of French people, do you think they have 12 or 13,000 euros to go to Switzerland at the end of their life? We must stop the hypocrisy by allowing only the rich and knowledgeable to be able to go abroad to allow everyone to die surrounded by the love of their own in our own country and at the time when we have chosen it.