IIt is high time to react to the debates taking place on the end of life, as the bill begins its parliamentary journey. In many positions reported in the press, it seems that the essential is ignored, namely the wishes of the person concerned. A number of zealous spirits discourse, lecture, appeal to our conscience and claim to bring us back ” In the right way “ – their. But when is the patient’s wishes taken into account?
It appears that the medical profession would be the sole decision-maker. Has it not occurred to anyone among the debaters of this bill that our death belongs to us – “to each his own death”just as we can affirm “to each his own” –, to us and not to caregivers, nor to religious people, nor to the State, nor to society, nor to all those who are currently fighting to defend their personal point of view? How would a doctor (according to the text of the bill, the final decision on assistance in dying would depend on a single doctor) have the right to make a decision on what belongs to us?
Better: François Arnault, president of the National Council of the Order of Physicians, declares that a “doctor alone will not be able to manage a patient’s request to die” and pleads for collegial decision-making (The Sunday Journal of April 27). But what exorbitant power do doctors arrogate to themselves? This is undoubtedly what we called the “medical omnipotence”.
Shakespeare’s “Seventh Age”
The president of the French Society for Support and Palliative Care, Claire Fourcade, also gives her opinion on the subject. Let’s not talk about religious people, who are resolutely opposed to what is demanded by a majority of people in France and granted in many other countries. Once again, have these authorities thought for a second that ultimately the decision belongs to the person concerned – and not to them?
Among those opposed to a breakthrough (I use this word deliberately), many argue in favor of a “natural death”. But what does the expression “natural death” mean when life expectancy has increased significantly, particularly among the oldest (it is therefore no longer the same as twenty years ago), while medicine , who repairs us with spare parts, prolongs our life to the point of making us wrecks?
It is the “seventh age”, according to Shakespeare, in the play As you would like (one could even say the “eighth”, given the progress made since his time), “the last scene, which puts an end to this strange and tumultuous story, is second childhood and simple oblivion, without teeth, without eyes, without taste, without anything”.
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