G. had chosen to die on Wednesday, August 14, mid-afternoon. As agreed, the 91-year-old woman received Maryse L. and Guy L., the 81-year-old couple who would accompany her, into her home. They had met within the Ultime Liberté association, which defends “The legalization of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia”. Long time activists, the couple heads the association’s branch in Isère. They had seen each other several times. G. had insisted that his only son attend one of his meetings to inform him of the “procedure.” His mother’s decision had been made, everything was ready. The son had only asked the couple to be informed later.
This Wednesday, August 14, G. sat on his bed. Maryse and Guy had brought what they needed: an antiemetic, sleeping pills, and sodium nitrite in lethal doses. They talked for a while, Maryse massaged the old woman’s feet. Just before she fell asleep, she told them that she was very happy that her son was playing the clarinet again. G. had a small first layoff, followed by a second. On the third, he rejected everything and regained consciousness. Guy immediately dialed the son’s number. “It didn’t work”he told him. Entering his mother’s house a few minutes later, the son lunged at Guy, slapped him and called the police station. “They wanted to kill my mother!” Stop them! »he shouted when the police arrived.
Under police custody, the two octogenarians explained everything. Maryse took out the small empty glass vial labeled “sodium nitrite” from her purse. DEATH”, the envelope with sleeping pills, two cups and a handkerchief. The investigator, who was leafing through his penal code, seemed embarrassed. “What are you worried about, Commissioner? », Maryse asked.. “I don’t know where to put you”, he responded.
Since August 16, the couple of Ultime Liberté activists have been accused of “illegal exercise of the profession of pharmacist”, “provocation of suicide by providing means” and “propaganda and advertising in favor of products, objects or methods recommended as means to kill”. oneself. They face a maximum sentence of three years in prison. Justice instructs. But, in this matter of chosen death, everything gets tangled. Public debate and the intimacy of an election. The will of an old woman, the militant commitment of a couple and the lack of love of a son. Three votes against the penal code.
“Life no longer has any flavor”
G. was heard the day after her attempted assisted suicide. She was at home and had refused to be hospitalized. “I wanted to leave. I had a very good life. “I don’t want to end up like all these poor people who are in nursing homes.”, she declared. He immediately worried about Maryse and Guy: “I don’t want them to get into trouble. They did everything to my request. They gave me the products and I carried them myself. »
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