Frenchman with rare disease to livestream his death
A Frenchman suffering from a rare and incurable condition is live-streaming his death on social media.
He refuses to take food, drink, or medicine after President Emmanuel Macron turned down his request for euthanasia.
57-year-old Alain Cocq has been suffering from a degenerative disease for 34 years.
In a video posted on Friday night (September 4), shot from his medicalized bed at his home in eastern France, he said "the road to deliverance begins."
Cocq had written to Macron asking to be given a sedative to allow him to die in peace.
But the president wrote back to him explaining this was not allowed under French law.
France's neighbors Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands have adopted laws that allow medically-assisted dying in some cases.
But France has resisted that step, in part under pressure from the Catholic Church.
The Claeys-Leonetti law on the end of life, adopted in 2016, authorizes deep sedation but only for people whose prognosis is threatened in the short term.
Cocq was fed by a drip and his digestive system connected to a colostomy bag. His condition has caused brain aneurysms and convulsions if he does not take his medicine.
He says he experiences constant pain and has called for a change to French law to allow medically-assisted dying in cases such as his.
