Word: bires
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Very few people could have looked upon Chantal Sébire at the end of her life and not understood why the former schoolteacher wished to end it. Left horribly disfigured and in frequent torment from incurable tumors that amassed in her sinuses and skull, Sébire's plea that doctors be allowed to legally terminate her life deeply moved French public opinion. It also prompted considerable reexamination of the nation's laws prohibiting active euthanasia -reflection that has continued in the wake of Sébire's March 19 suicide. But the passionate debate Sébire...
...bire came to national attention earlier this month, when French media picked up on her plea to get help ending her life. Her malady, esthesioneuroblastoma, causes inoperable tumors to grow in and spread from the nasal passages, disfiguring and destroying the face before finally destroying the brain. The disease had already blinded and otherwise handicapped Sébire, and left her wracked with pain for hours on end despite medication to allay her suffering. Sebire explained her request for medically assisted suicide saying she wanted to leave the world following an evening of celebration with her three children - and avoid...
...While campaigning for office, President Nicolas Sarkozy indicated he was sympathetic to revising France's current law, which forbids assisted suicide but allows doctors and families to stop administering life-sustaining treatment to terminal patients. But last week, the Elysée responded to Sébire's written request for help to Sarkozy by indicating he could not sidestep legislation. Ahead of Monday's court rejection of her petition that the law be interpreted to permit active euthanasia, members of France's conservative government similarly rebuffed Sébire's plea with reactions ranging from evident compassion and empathy to cold legal...
...despite ethical reservations, it became very clear Sébire's case deeply moved a majority of people in France, both in and out of government. "Her illness has left French people shattered these last days," said French government spokesman Luc Chatel when news of Sebire's death broke. "[Sébire] inspired great respect among our citizens...
Some French observers of Sébire's case note that laws banning assisted suicide haven't prevented it. Instead, they say, the prohibition has only sent the practice underground, where doctors and medical workers secretly consent to respect patients' pleas to end their lives via over-medication or other means that aren't often detected. Some suspect that may be how Sébire finally died. "I find it very difficult not to offer an exit door that isn't one of love with one's family," commented French Foreign Minister and trained doctor Bernard Kouchner on radio station RMC Thursday...