I Ask the Right to Die by Vincent Humbert, Deceased.

Sep 11, 2011
Sally Anne Lewis

When switching off isn't enough. - Quinn D.

Paralysed from the neck down, and with terrible brain injuries, Vincent Humbert just wanted one thing. To die. Euthanasia laws are often led by cases.

At the age of 16 Vincent Humbert had volunteered at his local fire station, in Normandy, France, and as soon as he was old enough he joined the fire service. Close friend and fellow firefighter Yves Gasnier described him as full of ‘joie de vivre.’ Gasnier was one of the firefighters who spent two and half hours cutting Humbert out of the wreck of his car.

Accidental non-death

Following the accident, where a burst tire caused him to collide with a truck, Humbert was in a coma for nine months. When he awoke, he was moved to a care unit several hours from home, and his mother, Marie, went with him. Taking a couple of jobs to support herself, Marie lived in a tiny apartment, worked, and spent the rest of her time with her son. Two years after the accident Vincent could hear, and could communicate by pressing his thumb into Marie’s hand as she recited the alphabet. Painstakingly, Marie would sit with him, writing down the letters he wanted her to before starting again. A, b, c, d … a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i .... a, b, c, d, e....

Two years had passed and they were told that the injuries had been so severe that there would be no further recovery and Vincent would never speak again. He would never walk, or see anything again. He couldn’t even smell or taste anything. But he would live.

Long life and …

Vincent was 22 years old when he learned that he was to be a blind, unmoving, helpless but living body. Marie would massage his body and write the letters that her son indicated. “I can't bear to suffer anymore,” he was telling her. "I want to die."

He could live for decades like this, unable to move anything but his thumb, and he was powerless to do anything about it himself. He wrote to the president of France, Jacques Chirac to ask that the law on euthanasia be changed so that he could die. Marie met with the president and was told that she couldn’t help her son to die without incurring a charge for murder. The law stood against assisted suicide.

Criminal acts?

With the help of journalist Frederic Veille,Vincent Humbert wrote a book, pressing his thumb against a hand to indicate the letters. It was due for publication in one week, and Marie went to work to publicize the book, and her son’s wishes, telling reporters, "I don't want to kill my son, I want to help him to commit suicide."

The book was published on September 24th, 2003, exactly three years after the accident. On the same day, Marie injected barbiturates into her son's intravenous drip. Vincent went into a coma and his mother was arrested, as doctors tried to keep Vincent alive. Demands for allowing him to die came flooding in from a sympathetic public, and his doctor finally turned off the respirator and injected Vincent with potassium chloride.

No trial

The doctor and Marie both expected to be prosecuted for their parts in assisting Vincent to escape what he regarded as a living death. The public prosecutor decided against a trial, finding that “both persons acted under the irresistible constraint of exceptional circumstances the nature of which exonerates them from criminal responsibility.” Remarkably, 80% of the population of France supported the euthanasia, or assisted suicide, of Vincent Humbert.

As a result of this case, and the public involvement due to Vincent’s best-selling book, the law in France was reviewed and a committee of physicians recommended that passive euthanasia be decriminalized. Doctors would be allowed to withhold care and let a patient die, but under strict safeguards to prevent abuse. A second opinion would be required in all situations and there must be a written request from a conscious patient or in the event of coma, the relatives.

The law was changed in 2005, to allow terminally ill patients to die without interference from physicians, but not allowing any act that caused a patient to die.