French woman with a rare facial tumor was denied a doctor-assisted suicide.

[Jun-Watarase]

This article was on CNN about a month ago, about a French woman with a rare facial tumor was found dead in her home after a huge debate on whether or not rights to death should be legalized.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/20/france.tumor/

PARIS, France (CNN) -- A French woman severely disfigured by facial tumors has been found dead just two days after a court rejected her request for an assisted suicide.

Medical examiners were Thursday looking into the death of 52-year-old Chantal Sebire -- whose case had prompted nominally Roman Catholic France to reexamine its stance on euthanasia -- to determine whether anything illegal had taken place.

It was not immediately clear how Sebire died.

The Dijon prosecutor has also opened an investigation into her death, although it has not yet been determined that an autopsy will take place, according to the prosecutor's office.

Sebire had suffered from esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare and incurable form of cancer for eight years, developing tumors in her nasal passages and sinuses that distorted her face and caused her nose and eyes to bulge.

The woman from Dijon, in eastern France, said drugs were ineffective against the excruciating pain caused by the condition and there was no reason doctors should not be permitted to hasten her death.

"It is not only the face. Some of my bones are eaten into. I don't have any more upper and lower jaws," she said in an interview last month, according to an Associated Press translation.

"At the moment, we don't know by what miracle my teeth are still holding. My gums are falling apart. You see the deformation of my face. It compresses inside," she said.

Sebire insisted there was no reason her doctors should not be permitted to help her commit suicide. "I ask to be helped to die because I don't want this tumor to have the last word. I didn't fight for seven and a half years to have it having the last word," she said in the February interview, according to the Associated Press translation.

Assisted suicide is illegal in France, however. The law permits only passive euthanasia -- removing feeding and hydration tubes when a person is in a coma, or inducing a coma and then removing the tubes.

Sebire's lawyer had tried to convince a French court that it was "barbaric" to put her through the ordeal of dying slowly in an artificial coma, something that could take up to two weeks while her three children looked on in anguish.

The court turned down the appeal Monday.

At the same time, Sebire wrote a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy appealing for help, but he responded by suggesting top doctors should reexamine her for a second opinion.

Her plight and the questions it raised caused so much public debate in France that when Sebire was found dead Wednesday night, it made front-page news in heavyweight papers including Le Figaro and Le Parisien.

CNN senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann in Paris said that Sebire had many supporters in France, with hundreds of people writing to her to express their backing.

"One of the reasons for this is this woman was a relatively young mother of three children, and many people could sympathize. People think 'what would I do in the same circumstances.' "

A French group called the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity, which took up Sebire's cause, believes laws must be changed to take such cases into account.

"It is not the liberty of a politician or a doctor -- it's the liberty of the person who is suffering, who has a terminal disease," said Jean-Luc Romero, president of the group.

"It's only the decision of the people who have a terminal disease to decide [whether they may die]."

Others in France disagree.

"It isn't because a citizen says 'I want this' that we should modify the law," said Patrick Verspieren, a Jesuit bioethics expert. "The law is already quite open."

France's prime minister and health and justice ministers all made clear they did not believe changes in French law were needed.

Here's a close-up image of her face. Not for the queasy. http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5532/1208818805680tl2.jpg
Images of her [before] the tumor are in the article.

That's pretty tragic. In the end, the tumor did have the last word, and she wasn't even allowed to take pain-killing medication because of their side-effects. I hope she's in a better place, now.

And while controversial topics aren't exactly the most welcome here, how do you think on the subject? Should it be legal for people to choose whether or not to live? In the end, it is their choice, but should it be legalized? I think requested suicides such as doctor-assisted ones for those suffering painful ailments should be legal, after an approval by the doctor abiding by these laws, whereas suicides for different reasons, and on property outside of hospitals should not. It doesn't stop people from doing it of course, but it shouldn't be legal. People might abuse/misinterpret the law and start irrationally committing suicide while thinking that it's perfectly non-consequential to anyone else. It might be tough on some doctors, though-- like how it is with vets and their inevitable obligation of putting animals to sleep, only in this case, they're humans, and most people value the human life a lot more. After thinking about it, that would make the lives of certain people in the hands of doctors in another light-- like being put in the position to judge those who should and shouldn't continue to live. Scary, y/n?

My friend brought up a funny thing, though. She mentioned how organized crime would love this idea to get rid of informants. Hahaha.

[Mister_E]

You should put that "Not for the queasy" part in bold red

Not trying to sound rude Oh no no!

[JTchinoy]

Well I'm not looking at the pic as I am queasy around death related stuff.

I never looked into assisted suicide outside of California, where I believe we allow assisted suicide based on a case a few years ago?  I agree that assisted suicide, or euthanasia to be more politically correct, for the terminally ill (as in you have below 1 year to live and it's like a daily life inhibiting ailment) should be allowed euthanasia in Europe in general.  I think that's a terrible way to die and I'd be fighting for my right so euthanasia as well in a similar situation.

How would organized crime abuse terminally ill euthanasia if you don't mind me asking??

Also, don't worry about controversial topics, I'm going to be bringing up something later tonight. :)

[Jun-Watarase]

Well I'm not looking at the pic as I am queasy around death related stuff.

It's a photo of her with the tumor, while alive.

How would organized crime abuse terminally ill euthanasia if you don't mind me asking??

Well, I referred to the general "rights to death" and not specifically issuing euthanasia to those terminally ill.

[JTchinoy]

Well I'm not looking at the pic as I am queasy around death related stuff.

It's a photo of her with the tumor, while alive.

How would organized crime abuse terminally ill euthanasia if you don't mind me asking??

Well, I referred to the general "rights to death" and not specifically issuing euthanasia to those terminally ill.

Major deformation of people tends to get me too, depending.  The mental image is bad enough, I can't imagine what the real image will do, (I'm scared)

Ah, well if they started a thing on rights to death outside the terminally ill, then it'll just get ridiculous.

[edendreams]

Omg... that's horrible the poor woman. I couldn't even fathom what she had to go through

[SOawesomeness]

0.0 Ooh.

I would let people request for suicides if the pain is severe and it's been ongoing for a long while...

Freaking crazy. o.0

[JohnnyAR]

*eyes widen to a extremely large size* HOLY SH*T! Alright that was crazy.

Poor woman, I could not imagine the pain she must've gone through.

[Amon_Devilman]

People deserve to choose in regards to their lives, but I don't think we should give doctors the right to decide these things. It should be a family thing as far as law goes. And even then, I'm not comfortable with the idea of assisting in someone's death.

[Tony]

There are practical reasons why you wouldn't want to make suicide a legal thing; the loopholes would be seriously complicated. And doctors, ideally, take and live up to the Hippocratic Oath, and that whole "first, do no harm" bit kinda gets in the way.

[Moonblossom]

I watched my grandmother die a slow and painful death over the course of twenty months, and I don't think anyone should ever have to suffer through that if they've given up mentally and want peace and dignity. She stopped eating out of protest, they forced her onto a feeding tube. She stopped taking her medication, they gave it all to her IV. The hospital basically bullied her into almost two years of misery and pain, because they thought it was "best" for her. Fuck that :/

[punk_parfait]

How terrible... it seems she took matters into her own hands anyways and I don't blame her after having to live with such cancer for 8 years. I preform euthanasia every day on animals and if it was legal I would certainly do people. It's no one's business but the individual how long they live and what method they chose to end it. Watching living things suffer is not my thing.

[*rei*]

Since its such a touchy subject, I thought this out long and hard.

I just want to clearify that Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide are two different concepts. Euthanasia implies the doctors intervention to end and relieve patients of their pain and suffering. Whereas PAS implies the patient are competent enought to be given the means and information by an MD to intervene in their own life.

I am all for PAS for CA; Oregon has PAS since 1997 known as Death with Dignity Act. I would want terminally ill patients at least the option to shorten their time of suffering. In this French women's case, her quality of life had greatly diminished, especially with the disfiguration of her face, impaired breathing, and the unimaginable pain that she had to go through because her pain regimen did not provide her relief. It was barbaric to believe that France only allows passive euthanasia. You have to watch a loved one be starved and be dehydrated to death and be in a medicine induced coma to die slowly over a course of a few days. >:(

I know PAS is a very controversial topic since it touches on the most intimate of human concerns: life and death and medicine and religion. If CA does consider a policy on PAS it should be based on Oregons' DWDA. They should begin by calling it Physician Assisted Death. The term suicide just gives it a negative connotation. There are specific requirements to have to be considerd for PAD such as: having a diagnosis of less than 6 months to live, capable of making decisions, a resident of the state, and be over 18 years old. Each case has to be evaluated individually. No one knows what these terminally ill patients and family go through unless they have a close friend or relative going through it or they themselves go through it. Pain and suffering is subjective, no one truly knows another's experience.

If PAS does come to pass in CA, those who choose PAD and get the perscription does not mean they will use it. According to the Oregon's annual report of DWDA 2007, in 2006, of the 65 prescriptions of PAD, 35 patients used their perscription. Although more than half used their perscription, not everybody used them. Some died because of their illness, and a small percent lived beyond the end of the year.

Those living with a terminal illness lose a lot of independence in their life. They are controlled by their illness, dependent on other people, and are on a medical schedule, especially if they are in a hospital. With PAD, terminally ill individuals will have the autonomy and right to make their own choices regarding their health care, end-of life, and death.

[Gatsby]

Wow. I'm glad she finally found peace.