Several rallies against euthanasia and assisted suicide
The collective Relieve but not kill, which opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia, gathered a few hundred people on Tuesday. A legislative text is in preparation.
Demonstration in Paris on April 4, 2023.
AFP
In Paris, around 200 people dressed in white and blue chasubles formed a human chain in a circle on Place du Trocadéro, AFP noted. “We are mobilizing to defend a society that protects the most vulnerable against the threat of active assistance in dying,” said Alix Durroux, spokesperson for the collective and geriatrician. “No one is unworthy to live, no one is ever too much.”
Human chains and gatherings also took place in several French cities such as Lyon (around thirty people), Bordeaux (around forty people) or Marseille (around fifteen people).
“I strongly fear that we are going little by little from “being able to be euthanized” to “having to be euthanized”, declared in Marseille Hubert Tesson, doctor in palliative care in a clinic in the city, saying to himself “convinced that if euthanasia is legalized, there are patients who will feel obliged to request euthanasia”.
“In countries that have already legislated on active assistance in dying, the safeguards do not hold”, estimated, in Bordeaux, Astrid de Pontbriand, a 50-year-old pharmacist, for whom “at the beginning it only concerns people at the end of life, and quickly it was extended to people suffering from psychological illnesses and minors”.
In a report validated on Sunday, the Citizens’ Convention on the End of Life answered three-quarters yes to “active dying” assistance, which covers the opening of euthanasia and assisted suicide, while matching its positions of important restrictions. Emmanuel Macron announced a bill by the end of the summer.
The collective Relief but not killing brings together several associations, including 100% alive, which brings together sick and disabled people, Soigner dans la dignity (an association of medical students and young caregivers) or the Vita Alliance, which also opposed to abortion. It is sponsored by Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, whose life inspired the film “Intouchables”, the story of the friendship between a quadriplegic and his life assistant.
AFP
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