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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PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP

After four days of agony, without treatment and food, Alain Cocq, suffering from an incurable disease and who wanted to let himself die, finally agreed to benefit from palliative care on Tuesday.

Alain Cocq "was hospitalized yesterday (Monday) evening after an intervention of the Samu", said Tuesday Sophie Medjeberg, vice-president of the association Handi-Mais-Pas-Que, confirming information from RTL radio.

For his representative, "we helped him make this decision"

The lawyer, appointed as representative by the Dijonnais to assist him in his end of life, had at first confided to fear that the patient had been transported to the Dijon University Hospital and treated against his will.

But he confirmed to her over the phone that he had requested palliative care.

“He has rejected the refusal of treatment.

He was in too much pain, it was too hard.

He still wishes to leave but in a process without suffering.

It was too difficult, ”she said.

Sophie Medjeberg was not able to specify Tuesday evening whether Alain Cocq, 57, was again fed and hydrated.

His representative had contacted the patient's doctor on Monday evening to ask him to provide comfort care.

The caregiver who accompanies Alain Cocq noted that "he was delusional, had foam on his lips and blood in his stool".

Despite Alain Cocq's confirmation, Sophie Medjeberg remains convinced "that we helped him make this decision", even if she says "to respect his choice".

In "terminal phase for 34 years", as he claims, Alain Cocq suffers from a rare and very painful genetic disease which blocks his arteries.

Failing to have obtained from President Emmanuel Macron an injection of barbiturates "on a compassionate basis" to shorten his suffering, he had decided to let himself die at home, ceasing all treatment, food and hydration since Friday evening.

The Claeys-Léonetti law on the end of life, adopted in 2016, only authorizes deep sedation for people whose vital prognosis is “in the short term”.

What Alain Cocq cannot prove.

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  • Dijon

  • Euthanasia

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