End of life: the testimony of Clémence, in chronic depression, who will resort to assisted suicide in Switzerland – CNEWS

The Ethics Committee published an opinion on Tuesday which could lead to a text of law, relating to the supervision of active assistance in dying. Today, some French people go abroad to end their lives, like Clémence, who will soon go to Switzerland for her assisted suicide. Choose when to end your life. The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron has taken the first steps with a view to a possible change in legislation concerning active assistance in dying. Legislation which Clemence will not be able to benefit from, who has chosen to leave France to end her life in an assisted manner. At 75, Clémence suffers from chronic depression. She therefore decided to leave France a few months ago in order to join Belgium, in the hope of having recourse to euthanasia. Faced with the slow processing of her file, she finally decided to turn to Switzerland to choose her end of life. “I consider myself lucky” “I was absolutely alone, my husband had died four years ago, I was childless and without close family, she explained at the microphone of CNEWS. I had the opportunity to assist and accompany people who had a terrible death in France and I did not see myself at all ending up in a retirement home where no one would come to see me”. To obtain permission to resort to assisted suicide, Clémence had to put together an important medical file which was validated by a Swiss association. An approach undertaken with the help of a French association but without talking about it with his relatives because “not a single person would accept that” in his entourage. The septuagenarian now knows the date on which she will end her life, in December. A date that she apprehends but to which she says she is ready. “I imagine it like the anesthesia during an operation, so you don’t even see yourself leaving,” she said. I consider myself lucky to be in control of how I go.” Regarding the day of her death, Clémence is “terrified by the fact of dying but even more by the fact of continuing to live as I live then”. Between now and mid-December, Clémence still has a few desires, such as reading books and listening to songs that bring back her fondest memories.