The third session of the Bioethics Master Class was held in Paris on September 26-27, 2015. Two days of training and meetings on the theme of “Look, Listen, and Act!” were organised by VITA Youth.
First of all, Caroline Roux, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate and co-ordinator for its listening services , presented the main issues regarding motherhood, and the new challenges that youth may be faced with concerning Medically Assisted Procreation and Surrogacy. The question of life’s end was developed by Henri de Soos, Alliance VITA’s General Secretary and co-ordinator of the listening service SOS End of Life, giving young people the necessary tools to decrypt the current debate surrounding the bill on Life’s End.
Workshops were then organized by VITA Youth, especially emphasizing listening and accompaniment.
Doctor Xavier Mirabel, oncologist and medical expert, delivered his analysis on preventative medicine. He presented some remarkable potential therapies, but did not hide the weighty ethical questions involved in the new discoveries and techniques.
An evening of testimonies presented a variety of initiatives and commitments where young people could show support and solidarity to the weak and the most vulnerable.
Tugdual Derville, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate, spoke on the question of transhumanism, inviting the youth to reflect on how to face the new challenges in this anthropological argument.
Blanche Streb, Alliance VITA’s Research Director, concluded the session by addressing the question, “Technique and reproduction: just how far will artificial procreation go?”.
At the end of this course, the young people present were invited to take time to reflect on their own commitment and on their personal « bioethical » story, so as to make the connection between this two-day training course and the possibilities of committing themselves in their daily life.
The International Day for the Elderly, instituted by the UNO in 1990, is being celebrated worldwide on October 1st.. The object of this day is to raise public awareness on the issue of growing old and the immense solitude of our elders. It is also a day where we can acknowledge and appreciate the contributions that the elderly bring to society.
This year’s chosen theme, « Durability and Openness to people of all ages in the urban environment », focuses on the conditions of the elderly across the continents: « Opening our towns to the elderly signifies setting up options for economic and social participation in safe and accessible environments. This includes providing affordable accommodation as well as the health and social services they need as they grow old in their environment.”
In France, the bill « Adaptation of society to growing old » is currently nearing the end of discussion in Parliament, with the Second Reading due in the Senate on October 28th. The text aims in particular to strengthen the autonomy of the elderly so that they can remain in their living environment, and to acknowledge the role of the 4.3 million family care assistants who help them on a daily basis. While presenting this bill in September 2014, the Secretary of State for the Elderly, Laurence Rossignol, reiterated this conviction: « One doesn’t become old from one day to the next. (…) When we are looking after the elderly, we are looking after the most vulnerable. »
Last June, Alliance VITA launched the campaign « Messages for Life ». Faced with isolation and an increasing exclusion of elderly people, this campaign arranged for several hundred members of the association to meet their elders and listen to their messages on life.
The testimonies of the members of Alliance VITA who participated in this action reveal the richness and depth of these encounters:
« This helped us to realise that many of the elderly are young at heart, and have a positive outlook, contrary to the stereotypical prejudices that are commonplace such as being pessimistic and bitter. »
« A great richness of the experiences shared by the very old, having lived an amazing life. »
« One gains insight, for some very old people, on the impact that different wars (Algeria, 39-45) have left on their lives. These experiences help us to put things into perspective, and give us a great lesson in humility faced with our small worries. »
« Beautiful meetings, and a reminder of the loneliness and solitude of the elderly. »
« Firstly, the aspect of time: at 90 years old you’re much calmer and peaceful than at 25, as if you’re actually living, instead of always running after Life.… »
« This motivates me to go and visit the elderly on a regular basis! »
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.”
On Tuesday, September 29, 2015, the public rapporteur for the administrative tribunal in Châlons-en-Champagne judged that the doctors at the Reims Hospital were within their rights, by virtue of their professional independence, not to put an end to Vincent Lambert’s life. For the rapporteur, the doctor acted “according to his professional and moral responsibility”
The public rapporteur thereby recommended that the judges reject the request made by François Lambert, (Vincent Lambert’s nephew), who is reclaiming application of the decision taken on January 11, 2014 at the Reims hospital by Dr. Eric Kariger to suspend feeding and hydration of the young man in a minimally conscious state following a serious car accident.
Following the ruling rendered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) the doctor now in charge of Vincent had started a new process seeking a possible decision to stop treatment, then on July 23 finally declined to act, citing outside pressure.
The decision of the administrative tribunal will be rendered on October 9th.
Caroline Roux, Deputy General Representative for Alliance VITA and Coordinator for the Listening Services of SOS Baby, was Kevin Michel’s guest on September 28, 2015 on the Sud Radio program “Alone Against All”, in the company of Franck Margain, Regional Advisor for the Ile-de-France and Vice-President of the Christian Democratic Party.
Verbatim extracts from the program:
« Organizing a day of demands about the right to abortion makes it more difficult to look at the reality of abortion”
« Why is this subject so difficult: because the life of a human being is at stake”.
« The quality of information is deteriorating. Women are not well-informed, and not being accompanied correctly. They often have questions, sometimes painful, but the information is one-sided. They aren’t given information regarding the possibility of pursuing their pregnancy. This is a genuine preoccupation for us.”
« Can we give women more chances not to abort, are we putting enough effort on it, or are we going to shut them into one single option?”
« 83 % of women think that abortion leaves psychological marks. Ifop survey”
« 2013 Opinion Way Survey: 85 % of women declare having experienced suffering during their abortion. “
