Her story had revived the end-of-life debate in 2003: Marie Humbert, Vincent's mother who asked in the early 2000s for the "right to die", died today at the age of 63. A woman described as courageous, who allowed her son, who became a quadriplegic after an accident, to die.
Marie Humbert, who helped her son Vincent, quadriplegic, to die in 2003 and relaunched the debate on the end of life, died at 63 in Evreux, we learned Sunday with a journalist from RTL close to the family. "Marie Humbert died at midnight from a long illness in a clinic in Evreux. She had been hospitalized for a year, " said Frédéric Veille author of the book " I ask you the right to die . "
"She was a fabulous woman who fought for years. She had made a promise to her son to continue his fight and that the euthanasia law is evolving, " he added. The "Humbert Affair" in the early 2000s revived the end-of-life debate in France.
Tetraplegic, mute and almost blind following a road accident, but with his intellectual faculties, Vincent Humbert died on September 26, 2003. Previously, from his hospital bed Berck (Pas-de-Calais), this former firefighter had solemnly asked President Jacques Chirac "the right to die" . The head of state had replied: "I can not bring you what you expect" .
His mother Marie attempted to fulfill her wish on the anniversary of the accident on September 24, 2003, injecting barbiturates into one of her infusions. In a coma, Vincent Humbert is kept alive for two days, before the resuscitator doctor, Dr. Frédéric Chaussoy, disconnects his artificial respirator. Pursued, the mother and the doctor will benefit from a dismissal in February 2006.
"Nothing is harder for a mother"
Inspired by this case, the Leonetti law passed in April 2005 established a right to "let die" but without allowing active euthanasia. Physicians can collectively decide "to limit or stop unnecessary, disproportionate or otherwise only artificially prolonged treatment of life" .
"She was a committed woman who made the decisions and faced the wishes of her son. She had an extremely courageous decision: there is nothing harder for a mother than to kill her son, " Dr Chaussoy said on Sunday.
"The memory of a brave woman"
"All the speakers in this affair, Vincent the first, Marie and I, we worked to have something: now it's the Leonetti law, it's not perfect, it will probably have to evolve . But finally, it is because or thanks to us that the French legislation could evolve, " he added.
The president of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity (ADMD), Jean-Luc Romero, expressed "his enormous sadness" . "I will remember her as a courageous woman who has tirelessly fought for a dignified end of life ," he wrote on Facebook.