A veterinarian, acquitted in May 2022 for forgery and use of forgery for having written false prescriptions allowing the suicide of a friend suffering from Charcot’s disease, was found guilty on appeal Thursday, November 30 in Angers. The caregiver was exempted from punishment.
The friend suffering from this incurable neurodegenerative disease, aged 59, was found dead at his home on May 21, 2019. His autopsy revealed the presence of a deadly molecule from veterinary euthanasia products.
A judicial investigation for assassination and attempted assassination had been opened against the veterinarian, these proceedings were finally abandoned during the investigation. The veterinarian, aged around 60, was eventually prosecuted for providing false prescriptions. He was acquitted in 2022 for these acts of forgery and use of forgery, but the prosecution appealed.
At the hearing before the criminal court, the practitioner explained that he had “first refused” to respond to his friend’s request, eventually giving in to his distress. He had left a writing before killing himself: “You really have to let me go this time. »
“If assisted suicide is not punishable by criminal law, it is the means provided that are. There is legislative hypocrisy. We do not dare to condemn assisted suicide, but we prevent it indirectly. This is not up to a clear debate on the end of life and its ethics”had estimated the defense lawyer, Antoine Barret, at the end of the appeal hearing, held at the end of June.