Yasmina Kattou // Photo credit: CAIA IMAGE / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / NEW / Science Photo Library via AFP
The end-of-life bill continues its journey through Parliament. This Wednesday, he will be presented before the Council of Ministers. But in the aisles of hospitals, the future active assistance in dying does not please all patients. Worse, some fear a change in attitude from doctors or their loved ones.
Discussed for several months, the end-of-life bill is becoming reality. The latter will be presented this Wednesday morning during the Council of Ministers. The text must define the contours of active assistance in dying and in particular the patients who will be eligible for it. People with neurodegenerative pathologies such as Charcot disease could probably have access to it. But not all patients suffering from these illnesses necessarily want to be offered an end to it.
This is the case with Caroline. At age 47, she experienced the first symptoms of Freidrich’s disease. First, difficulties in speaking and articulating, then over the years, problems with balance. Walking without a walker becomes complicated and eventually, as Caroline knows, she will be a prisoner of her body. But his desire to live remains intact.
“Will he dare tell me to end it?”
“The future will be difficult, but what we have to do is live in the present. Somehow, many people might envy us. For example, who doesn’t dream of a time to watch flowers grow” she emphasizes on the microphone of Europe 1. Caroline fears, with the arrival of assisted dying, that caregivers will change their outlook on condemned patients.
“Perhaps I will see it in my doctor’s eyes. Will he dare to tell me to end it, to stop there? Or maybe it will be my loved ones (who will tell me, editor’s note) ).That’s what scares me,” she continues. Suffering for 17 years, Caroline hopes that the palliative care she receives will be able to accompany her until her last breath.