Disfigured French Woman Commits Suicide - Debate on Euthanasia

Meet Chantal Sebire.

Chantal suffers from a rare, painful and incurable form of cancer that has resulted in the growth of massive tumours along her nasal passages and in between her eyes. Other than for the excruciating pain she's constantly in and her inability to breathe through her nose, she's otherwise healthy.

Sadly, Chantal died today, March 20th, 2008, two days after her final appeal to France's Supreme Court for assisted Euthanasia, or the medically supervised taking of ones life, was rejected. President Sarkozy of France turned down her personal appeal.

While the investigation is ongoing, it appears that Chantal committed suicide, possibly with some assistance. More will follow in the coming days.

This story, however, has sparked intense debate in France and abroad concerning the legitimacy of euthanasia as a form of mercy killing.

I think that those who vilify this woman and her desire to commit assisted suicide have no real understanding of what this woman's suffering was like, nor are their beliefs pragmatic or humane. That she could have committed suicide without medical supervision if she had wanted to but did not, is proof in my opinion that she struggled long and hard with this decision over the course of the 8 years that this disease slowly changed her life and appearance. She ultimately found her suffering to detrimentally impact her life above and beyond any sort of pleasure she got from experiencing her life and the love of her family. What a truly sad story.

While I believe that stringent limits should be placed on the practice of euthanasia to limit it exclusively to those instances where there is irrefutable evidence that a person wants to willingly end their life because their physical suffering is too much, I feel very strongly that it is a practice that can be humane in application and morally justifiable.

If you were this woman and in this sort of pain, would you want others to tell you what you could or could not do? If we are each held accountable for our own actions and our own welfare, we too should be able to die with dignity if we have the reasonable cognitive capability to arrive at that eventuality. She did. Sadly, the Supreme Court of France robbed her of a dignified death.

Shame on anyone who morally admonishes this woman for having taken her own life.

Rest in Peace Chantal.