Rally against assisted suicide
Always rescue, never “help” to die!
By the end of the year, the French government intends to table a bill aimed at legalising assisted suicide.
On Saturday 2nd December, Alliance VITA sounded a cry all over France to protest against the legalisation of assisted suicide.
In some fifty towns in France, thousands of people wearing masks and clasping their faces with their hands, mimicking the famous “Scream” painted by Edward Munch in 1893. Every suicide is a tragedy which affects many people and which constitutes a failure for our society.
Legalising assisted suicide is akin to designating certain people as eligible to suicide and undermines any policy for suicide prevention.
In opposition to this dangerous bill, five cries are sounding all over France:
- A CRY OF TERROR at the very thought that the most vulnerable should thus be excluded from suicide prevention, as if their life was no longer worth living.
- A CRY OF ANGER with those already suffering from bereavement following the suicide of a family member and who know and have to endure the violence of such a tragedy.
- A CRY OF REBELLION at the involvement being demanded of carers for the validation of suicide requests, the provision of lethal substances and participation in their administration.
- A WARNING CRY at the risk of holding a lethal poison at home.
- AN ALERT CRY against the impact of the legalisation of suicide for people suffering from depression.
At a time when the health system in France is confronting a major crisis affecting the entire population, and when a law on old age is still awaited to take into account the ageing of the population, how can one understand this time-table which aims to table a bill on assisted suicide before the end of the year?
Alliance VITA is calling for action to back a society which takes care of the most vulnerable:
- By reasserting their refusal of euthanasia and assisted suicide as well as therapeutic obstinacy;
- By calling for guaranteed access to palliative care all over France.
