A French high court has just decided that a 52 year-old disfigured woman (seen at right) who has suffered unimaginable physical and psychological pain due to a rare disease is not allowed to have her qualified (and willing) doctor administer a lethal dose of drugs to end her suffering and kill her. Law should exist only insofar as it seeks to limit human suffering — all laws, after all, should be negative laws (do not kill, do not steal) — and yet this is not what laws seek to do under governments. Laws under governments are almost worse than arbitrary as are too often left in the hands of those who would rather play semantic games than use those codifications to the reasonable purpose of reducing human suffering. Hence, under “law”, this lady must continue to suffer.
Chantal Sebire (the woman) has said she won’t appeal the courts decision but she intends to find life-terminating drugs through other means. “I now know how to get my hands on what I need, and if I don’t get it in France, I will get it elsewhere,” she said.
Can anyone really believe in the benevolence of the State anymore? I’m sorry Ms. Sebire has suffered and I can only hope through her own efforts and those around her willing to help, she will end it once and for all.
