Alain Cocq is from Dijon. Heavily handicapped because of a worsening orphan disease, he calls on Emmanuel Macron to legalize the right to active assistance to die with dignity. On August 25, he will be heard by advisers from the Elysee.
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It is in a letter addressed to the President of the Republic that the Dijonese Alain Cocq has made public his decision to knowingly die by ceasing his treatments. Last week, Alain Cocq received a response from the Elysée. It and will be received on Tuesday, August 25.
“The ball is in the presidency’s court”
The appointment is given August 25 at 4:30 p.m. Initially predicted at the Elysée Palace, the meeting will take place by teleconference. Alain Cocq will be heard by Anne-Marie Armenteras (advisor in charge of solidarity and health) and the Professor Vincent Morel, in charge of the national development plan for palliative care and end-of-life support.
“They are waiting for me to explain my approach to them in more detail … But my approach is clear!“says Alain Cocq. He only hopes for one thing from this meeting:”that they authorize me to be accompanied by the medical profession to be able to leave quietly. The ball is in the presidency’s court now. “
On this occasion, the representatives of ADMD associations (Association for the Right to Die with Dignity), Ultimate freedom and Handi more than should be able to participate in the discussion.
The end of treatment postponed
Alain Cocq had decided to stop eating and hydrating to die at home, as authorized by the Leonetti law, from August 26. “But I have respect for our institutions, and I don’t go to Paris with a knife to their throats.“So Alain Cocq decided to postpone the end of treatment at September 4. “Either I benefit from an agreement from the President to leave with dignity and I leave in peace, or I leave in suffering” he explains. In this case he promises to stop treatment and to film his agony live on social networks.
Interview conducted on August 3:
Why did you decide to die, under these conditions, on August 26?
Alain Cocq: “I have an orphan disease, with more and more complications for four years. All my vital organs are affected, I have four aneurysms in the brain, and if I do not take my treatment I convulse. yet become someone resistant to the disease, but now I can no longer get out of my bed without screaming in pain. Comforting myself with a virtual life on the internet does not bring me any satisfaction, I am confined to my bed , it is no longer a life. The date on the other hand, it has no meaning. It imposed itself on me. “
Are you going to follow the law by ending your care?
“Yes, the Leonetti law authorizes the stopping of treatment, so that’s what I’m going to do. As of August 26, my caregivers will be by my side, we will stop the probes and infusions that hydrate me and that feed me, and I will only have a sedative treatment, to die little by little.
But morphine is a progressive anesthetic. I would have preferred a real law to die with dignity, falling asleep suddenly, without suffering. We are in a country that leaves people facing their illnesses, their suffering, for me that is akin to torture or barbarism. Asking patients to stop their treatments in order to suffer to the end is not human. This is why I wanted to write to the President of the Republic. “
To alert the president to your situation?
“This letter is a last fight for me, to continue to demand the right to die legally. I especially wanted the President of the Republic to realize through my testimony that the Leonetti law is not sufficient, that it does not correspond to the extent of the suffering of certain patients.
The authorities must understand that dying with dignity is something more than suicide, it is demanding ultimate care in the face of illness. So far, I have not received any response from Emmanuel Macron. I just know that the letter has arrived at the Elysee Palace. I was told by phone that it had been read carefully by the president’s chief of staff. “
What feelings does it represent to plan his death?
“I’m at peace. I can’t wait to be there now that my decision is made. I have friends who are coming to say goodbye to me little by little. I will have my caregivers by my side that day. . That’s all that mattered to me. I leave a sister, to whom it hurts a lot, of course, but I have planned everything administratively, she will only have the death certificates to send.
My last medical appointment at the Dijon Pain Center will be on August 20, and then, from August 26, everything will be broadcast live on my Facebook page. Citizens must know that we cannot yet die with dignity today, and that we are forced to go through a slow agony. The disease affects 70% of our fellow citizens, we must publicize our suffering so that the law will change one day. “
Extract from the letter, dated July 20, 2020, addressed to Emmanuel Macron:
“Mr. Emmanuel Macron,
If I take the liberty of writing to you, it is with regard to the marked violation of my right to self-determination and the right to dispose of oneself and therefore of one’s body. […] For over 34 years I have been fighting for a life with dignity. […]
I want to tell you so far that I find myself in the situation of a healthy mind, confined in a dysfunctional body and crippled by pain.
I find myself in the situation where the medical profession is powerless to treat my orphan pathology. […] For me to this day, I am no longer in a dignified life situation! Keeping me alive costs between 200,000 and 500,000 € each year. I am simply asking to leave with dignity, with active assistance from the medical profession.
Some people use the term “active euthanasia” or “assisted suicide”, but for me the most suitable term is “end of life with dignity”. “Euthanasia” recalls the program of extermination of the Jewish people, the gypsies, the Russian military and political opponents, by Nazism.
As it stands, the Claès-Leonetti law imposes on me an agony of 3 to 7 days in excruciating suffering, by stopping food, hydration and all medical treatments. […] I am asking you to be able to benefit on a compassionate basis from the right to end of life in dignity, with active assistance from the medical profession.
Alain Cocq”
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