2024-10-04 12:00:17
On October 15, 2019, a very large search was carried out by 300 judicial police officers under the direction of the Central Office for Combating Attacks on the Environment and Public Health (Oclaesp) throughout French territory, in eighteen regions. The homes of nearly 150 people were searched at the same time, as part of a preliminary investigation supervised by the Paris prosecutor’s office into possible trafficking in pentobarbital, a barbiturate banned for sale since 1996.
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Still used for veterinary purposes, this medication is known to be an effective and painless way to implement voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide. Which the investigators will quickly have confirmation of: among the people targeted by the investigations and suspected of having ordered pentobarbital from abroad and illegally imported, thirty-six had already died at the time of the searches.
The buyers have several particularities: they are elderly – 80% of them are over 70 years old – and many are former caregivers or retirees from intellectual professions. Above all, more than half of them are members of an association created in 2009, Ultime Liberté, which campaigns for “the legalization of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia”. With more than 3,000 members, it was founded by former members of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity (ADMD) who found that this organization was not going far enough in its fight, by restricting itself to a specific field. politics and refusing to actively help people who want to stop living. Among the thirty-six members who died, some were very young. One of them was 29 years old and had left a note at his home: “It’s suicide”.
“Discomfort of the judicial institution”
Thirteen leaders and supporters of Ultime Liberté were referred to court on February 20 for several charges, including “illicit acquisition and detention”, “complicity in illegal acquisition”, “importation”, “complicity in importation” and “complicity in smuggling” substances, plants or medicines. Among them, Guy L., the head of the Grenoble branch, also indicted in August, with his wife, for trying to help a 91-year-old woman commit suicide.
Following this raid, the investigating judges chose not to prosecute the activists for the offenses of illegal practice of the profession of pharmacist and propaganda or advertising in favor of products or methods for killing oneself. “This perfectly illustrates the discomfort of the judicial institution in the face of such a sensitive subject. She is very overwhelmed by the situation and does not have the courage to note that this militant behavior does not fall under criminal law”underlines Arnaud Levy-Soussan, lawyer for Ultime Liberté and the Grenoble activist couple.
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