Euthanasia: a French doctor under investigation

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Par Le Figaro pour le cercle :

A French doctor is suspected of administering lethal injections to four patients in “end of life” status. He is charged with “poisoning of vulnerable people.”

An emergency physician at the Bayonne hospital (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), believed to have ended the lives of at least four patients over the last five months, was indicted last Thursday for “poisoning of particularly vulnerable people.”

According to Bayonne deputy prosecutor Marc Marriée, Dr. Xavier Bonnemaison, 50, admitted to injecting products such as Norcuron, a curare-based drug that can cause paralysis of the respiratory muscles. He also indicated that he had referred the case to two investigating judges, considering its complexity.

The death of these people – all considered in “end of life” status but admitted to the emergency room while waiting for a place in a palliative care service – seemed suspicious to nurses and nursing auxiliaries. They reported these suspicions to their superiors on August 9. Hospital Director Michel Glanes then referred the affair to the prosecutor of the Republic.

Multiple investigations

The prosecutor’s office requested that Bonnemaison, who risks life imprisonment, be taken into custody under committal order but he was released under judiciary control Friday evening. The doctor is forbidden to practice his profession and to meet anyone concerned by the affair.

The Bayonne police in charge of investigations will examine, among others, the case of a 92-year-old patient who died August 3, the day after her admission to the emergency room.

The General Inspection of Social Affairs (IGAS) will conduct a parallel administrative investigation into “the conditions of the death of people hospitalized in Bayonne,” said Thursday the Minister of Labour and Health, Xavier Bertrand, and Secretary of State for Health Nora Berra. The facility’s organization, internal control and management of patients in the department in question will be scrutinized and a report is due within two months.

The hospital’s management wants to soften the blow. “The medical community and the whole staff are overwhelmed by this situation," said on Thursday the establishment’s head during a press conference. The hospital is offering psychological support for the department’s staff and the director said he had contacted the families of those whose death was deemed suspicious.

Strong support

More than 14,500 people have expressed support for Bonnemaison on Facebook, calling his act a gesture of “humanity” and “love” and pointing to “system failures.”

Furthermore, an online petition addressed to the Ministry of Health has collected more than 16,000 people as of yesterday evening. It points out that Bonnemaison “has always practiced medicine with humanity, integrity and intelligence.” The end of the text sounds like a call to legislators: “Refusing euthanasia with such hypocrisy shows disrespect to life!”

Between 300 and 400 staff members came together on Tuesday inside the Bayonne hospital as a sign of support.

A recurring issue

This is not the first time an affair of this sort occurs in France. Over the past 15 years, the most significant case of active euthanasia is perhaps the Christine Malevri affair. Malevri, a nurse, was sentenced in 2003 to 10 years in prison for having cut short the lives of six patients in palliative care.

In 2003, the death of Vincent Humbert, a young tetraplegic, revived the controversy. Dr. Frederic Chaussoy injected Humbert with a lethal dose, upon request of the family. Humbert had previously appealed to then French President Jacques Chirac requesting the “right to die.”

That same year, Laurence Tramois, a doctor, and Chantal Chanel, a nurse, were accused of poisoning a patient with terminal cancer. The nurse was acquitted but the doctor was sentenced to a year in prison, with deferred sentence.

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