Henri de Soos, Alliance VITA’s General Secretary, was the “KTO” French Catholic television station’s guest on September 29, 2015, to explain the importance of demonstrating in front of the prefectures of the newly designated regions of France, in favor of palliative care on the eve of the second reading of the End of Life law before the National Assembly.
Some verbatim extracts from the program:
« This law concerning the end of life is useless and dangerous » (…). The text is vague and ambiguous.”
« Regarding sedation, the idea is to put someone to sleep, but with what intention, and which method? (…) A few days after the announcement of the Bonnemaison affair in August 2011 (the doctor at the Bayonne hospital who was accused of performing euthanasia on a dozen of terminally ill patients), our listening service “SOS: end of life” received the following comments: “I’m being treated for cancer, and I’m very worried about the way current events are evolving…Doctors are supposed to be present for taking care of us, not putting us to death. All this is worrying me very much. Today I met an old person who refuses to be hospitalized by fear of being unknowingly put to death against his will. To conclude, I don’t trust the hospital personnel, especially after what we have just witnessed in Bayonne…”
“In the movement Relieve Suffering without Killing, we are scandalized by the past 3 years’ happenings in France. President Hollande promised the French population in July 2012 to organize a new plan for palliative care. (…) In Mars 2015, Marisol Touraine reiterated the same promise in front of the National Assembly, and again in June before the Senate. But nothing is happening. (…) We’ve heard enough words; we demand action. »
« For palliative care: political choices have not yet been made. Come and join us on Saturday October 3rd in front of the prefectures of the 13 new regions of France, we will tell that we want action, and that we intend to follow-up the development of the situation region by region.”
