Disabled, he threatens to film his agony to benefit from euthanasia

Dijon (Côte-d'Or), August 12, 2020. Alain Cocq has decided to stop eating and hydrating in order to benefit from active euthanasia.

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• Aged 57, Alain Cocq is affected by a disease so orphan that it does not even have a name.

  The walls of her arteries stick together and her condition deteriorates.

• Tireless activist for the cause of people with disabilities, he warned the Elysee that he would stop eating and hydrating from Friday if Emmanuel Macron does not legalize medical aid in dying.

• Very supported, he plans to film his agony and broadcast it live on Facebook.

Two years he had been thinking about it.

Finally, Alain Cocq made his decision just before the summer.

"One morning, it came out of my guts… From deep inside me," he lets out in his voice hoarse and jerky from the lack of oxygen.

It went up and it farted in my face!

It is now to that of France that its history is likely to jump.

Affected by a disease so orphaned that it does not even have a name, this 57-year-old man threatens to let himself die of hunger and thirst live on Facebook if Emmanuel Macron does not change his position on active euthanasia.

The ultimatum ends Friday evening.

“It's pretty simple,” he explains.

Either the government authorizes a doctor to give me a strong barbiturate to end it all at once.

Either I stop all my treatments, diet and hydration and I film myself until it is over.

"

Nailed to his bed in Dijon and in great pain, Alain Cocq is not at the end of his life.

He could benefit from the provisions of the Claeys - Leonetti law (2016) which provides for the possibility of “deep and continuous sedation until death” for the patients in his case.

This is what Vincent Lambert benefited from, for example.

Except that Alain Cocq refuses.

"I want to stay conscious until the last second," he hammers.

I don't want to die after being in the dark for days.

"

The walls of the arteries stick together

Nothing surprising: the former plumber is an activist for the cause of people with disabilities known for his determination.

In 1993, it was in a wheelchair that he went from Dijon to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) to make himself heard.

The following year, he embarked on a tour of France.

Then travels through Europe, from Brussels (Belgium) to Geneva (Switzerland).

Always in an armchair.

Until several cardiac and cerebral accidents do not immobilize him definitively.

Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), June 17, 1998. Alain Cocq arrives at the Council of Europe after a journey in a wheelchair of more than 2,000 kilometers.

- DAMIEN MEYER / AFP

Today very thin, this man who has practiced dance for 17 years - "from hard rock to ballet", he emphasizes - discovered that he was ill 34 years ago.

The day he slipped off an icy staircase and dislocated his knee.

During the operation, the surgeons noticed that no drop of blood escaped from the incision… "In fact, the walls of my arteries stick to each other", he decrypts.

Now, "electric shocks" run through his body "every two or three seconds" from the cervical.

"He wanted to die on the land of his ancestors"

And his condition is deteriorating.

“I can hardly move anymore.

Gradually I lose my sight, hearing and speech.

For me, it's non-life.

And for me, there is no difference between death and non-life… ”Not for Sophie Medjeberg.

Vice-president of the association "Handi but not that", she does not hide her sadness but prefers to speak of her admiration for the one who chose her as representative to "manage [her] death".

“At the beginning, we took steps in Switzerland and Belgium, but that represented a phenomenal cost,” she says.

And then, Alain wanted to die on the land of his ancestors.

And do something that might help the cause.

Something militant.

"

"Sensationalism… essential"

So it will be on Facebook.

And too bad if it makes one think of a bad British reality TV or an episode of the series

which explores the excesses of our societies perverted by new technologies.

“It's sensationalism that I deplore.

But it is essential…, comments François Lambert *, the nephew of Vincent Lambert, who now supports Alain Cocq.

People need to understand that the end of life is

in France!

I spent a night with Vincent when they had cut off his diet and hydration, it was horrible… Ignoble… Atrocious… ”

The Élysée knows this well.

Alerted by a letter from Alain Cocq, the Presidency of the Republic organized a telephone meeting at the end of August with Emmanuel Macron's health adviser.

“It was an exchange with a lot of humanity and listening, assures Jean-Luc Romero, the president of the Association for the right to die with dignity, who attended the exchange.

But unfortunately, they didn't promise Alain anything.

They will not move… ”

What strength & what courage #AlainCocq during the meeting with the health advisor of @EmmanuelMacron!

Happy to have been able to participate at his request and impressed by his determination!

He who is a man of combat has the right to leave and to no longer undergo excruciating suffering.

pic.twitter.com/xDzrZNm2mF

- Jean-Luc Romero-Michel (@JeanLucRomero) August 25, 2020

In the campaign as once elected, Emmanuel Macron has never expressed his desire to legalize medical aid in dying or assisted suicide.

Alain Cocq is well aware of this.

"I am serene," he slips at this evocation.

Hanging prominently next to his bed, a pocket contains important documents for caregivers.

"Resuscitation prohibited", is it written on the red cover.

* François Lambert is the author of

“So that he is the last.

The truth about the Vincent Lambert affair ”

Report: Dying with dignity, it can be as easy as a phone call

Justice

Vincent Lambert is dead, after ten years of legal battle

• Handicap

• Society

• Health

• Emmanuel Macron

• Dijon

• Facebook

• End of life

• Euthanasia