While euthanasia is legal in Belgium, increasing numbers of patients from neighbouring countries, particularly France, are seeking to end their lives there.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I'm in France, behind me is Belgium, a country where euthanasia has been allowed for more than 20 years.
00:05 And this border, many French or foreigners have decided to cross it to come and die.
00:09 A reality that raises many questions.
00:11 What are the criteria for an application to be accepted?
00:13 How does it affect health professionals on the ground?
00:16 For Witness, I went to meet these people who have decided, as they say, to die in dignity.
00:21 I took control of my life again. I chose how it would end.
00:26 Often, mourning happens better after euthanasia. I'm not saying that everyone should have euthanasia.
00:31 Things are very clear, things have been said, goodbyes have been made, thanks have been given.
00:36 Euthanasia can only be practiced under certain conditions.
00:40 It is a possibility for the patient, it is not a right for the patient.
00:43 It is a possibility for the doctor, it is not a duty for the doctor.
00:51 Brussels, the Belgian Parliament. This is where the law on euthanasia was adopted in 2002.
00:57 The Netherlands and Belgium are the first two countries in the European Union to have legalized the freedom to die.
01:02 Luxembourg will follow in 2009, then more recently Spain in 2021 and Portugal in May 2023.
01:08 In Belgium, an important feature, health care is not linked to a country of residence.
01:13 This means that, unlike the Netherlands, a foreign resident can apply for euthanasia on the territory.
01:19 Just for this year, more than 70 French people have already died in Belgium.
01:23 I wanted to understand how this happens in practice.
01:26 So, less than two hours from Brussels, in the north of France, I met Sabine.
01:30 She has chronic arthritis since the age of 5.
01:33 After two cardiac arrests, respiratory distress, severe and continuous pain and the doses of morphine that go with it, she decided to die at 56.
01:41 François, a retired doctor, helped and advised her in her procedures.
01:45 In the coming weeks, Sabine will die in Belgium, at the date she chose.
01:49 I took control of my life again. I chose how it would end.
01:54 I prefer to go in dignity, in calm, surrounded by my own, than in the hospital, stung everywhere, with my own tears.
02:08 No, I don't want that.
02:11 I'm really at peace with that.
02:15 I mean, yes, I'm at peace.
02:18 Before knowing that it would be possible, I would go to bed at night saying, "It would be nice if I didn't wake up tomorrow morning."
02:27 Now I don't say it anymore because I know I have the date, I know when I won't wake up.
02:32 But I don't need to say it would be nice.
02:35 Calm, of course, but also a regret, not being able to die at home in France.
02:41 A claim she will carry until her last breath.
02:44 We will never force a doctor, we will never tell him, "Well, today's consultation, you're going to be euthanized, Mr. Machin, between this time and that time."
02:52 You have to stop. These are false debates.
02:55 So the only thing I ask is that we leave her my freedom and that we leave it to others.
03:02 I don't force anyone to be euthanized, but I don't accept that others are refused.
03:07 And that makes me very angry.
03:11 A frustration shared by Dr. Guillaumeau.
03:16 With other French doctors, he decided to accompany patients at the end of their lives.
03:20 A path that can lead them, if he wishes, to euthanasia in Belgium.
03:23 We created a collective here in the north.
03:28 This collective has two goals.
03:31 The first is to accompany people, to answer their questions,
03:35 to accompany their ambivalence, their change of opinion, their questioning,
03:42 and why not to stop what they started initially.
03:47 That's the most important thing, the co-construction, what we do together, to accompany them.
03:51 But the other element is to filter, I don't like that term, is to filter the demands.
03:57 Because on the one hand, these people shouldn't face a very deleterious name psychologically,
04:04 but we also have to avoid our Belgian colleagues,
04:07 who find themselves in front of people who don't know the Belgian law well,
04:10 and to whom we will have to say no.
04:12 These people will not be able to stand it, and the relationship will be very bad and very traumatic,
04:16 whether for the person or for the Belgian doctor who will be in front of them.
04:24 In Brussels, I go to meet the one who agreed to help Sabine.
04:28 Marc De Crawley is a general practitioner, and he is often confronted with the demands of French patients.
04:33 He does not hesitate to cross the border to inform his colleagues about the reality of this act,
04:37 which he has been practicing for several years.
04:39 For him, euthanasia should not be debated.
04:42 The current obstacle is the medical body.
04:47 It's not the population.
04:50 I think that today in France it's the same thing.
04:53 The majority of the population would like to be able to legislate,
04:57 would like to be able to access it in certain situations.
05:01 There are pros, there are cons.
05:04 That's why we shouldn't debate this.
05:07 It's better to listen to people's demands and try to propose something that respects those who are against.
05:16 I think that's often what the Antilles reproach us for.
05:20 "Yes, but we don't want to."
05:23 It's still a patient's approach.
05:25 The patient doesn't do the approach.
05:27 The doctor doesn't propose euthanasia.
05:30 It's not our role. We don't propose euthanasia.
05:32 If the patient doesn't talk about it, we don't talk about it.
05:35 Euthanasia can only be practiced under certain conditions.
05:39 It's a possibility for the patient.
05:41 It's not a right for the patient.
05:43 It's a possibility for the doctor.
05:45 It's not a duty for the doctor.
05:47 And the criteria, as I said, are simple.
05:50 It's incurable pathology,
05:52 unpeaceful suffering, whether it's psychological or physical,
05:58 and repeated, reiterated, conscious, without external pressure.
06:03 Last year, nearly 3,000 people chose euthanasia.
06:08 That represents less than 3% of the mortality in Belgium.
06:11 If the numbers increase each year without exploding,
06:14 the demands increase in numbers, with sometimes fantastic justifications.
06:18 Yet the Act is regulated and is reserved only for patients
06:21 for whom all alternative solutions have been explored.
06:24 An important point for Jacqueline Hermans,
06:26 president of the Association for the Right to Die in Dignity.
06:29 Active during the creation of the law in 2002,
06:31 she deplores the too permissive image attributed to Belgium.
06:34 The Relative Euthanasia Law in Belgium was voted in 2002.
06:41 So we have a 20-year experience, a little more,
06:46 with this law, which is often caricatured abroad,
06:52 mainly in France.
06:54 It's the paradox.
06:56 Because of the caricature in France,
07:01 French people think that it's enough to come to Belgium,
07:04 to ask for euthanasia and to obtain it.
07:07 Even though our law is flexible,
07:11 we must remember that there are conditions.
07:14 The paradox is that, as we are in Europe,
07:19 we are also in the European Union,
07:22 with the free movement of people,
07:25 France, in a way,
07:28 intervenes in the costs of hospitalization,
07:32 in relation to the euthanasia procedures that take place in Belgium.
07:36 So, the French officials are ready to take on some euthanasia,
07:45 but not ready to take it on in their own country.
07:49 My last visit is in Tours, still in Belgium,
07:55 at the palliative care center, 8 km from the French-Belgian border.
07:59 This is where euthanasia takes place,
08:01 and half of it concerns French patients.
08:05 Euthanasia and palliative care are often opposed in the French debate.
08:08 Both are intrinsically linked in the Belgian health care.
08:11 Dr. Delperdange, for example, considers euthanasia as a service
08:14 that completes the care of the end of life.
08:16 He also offers special consultations.
08:19 For him, it is up to each patient to define his personal limits.
08:23 What touches me the most in the euthanasia we do,
08:32 is the recognition that people have.
08:35 I am always surprised, because we are going to do a gesture that is not trivial,
08:38 which is to take their life,
08:40 and that in almost every case, the patient, in the hours that precede,
08:44 and the days that precede when I talk to them,
08:46 they are extremely grateful that we accept to do this for them.
08:49 Also in relation to the family, I remember there was a lady who was there,
08:52 and her daughters really spent the night there, and she was...
08:59 So, there was a bit...
09:01 The girls were there to massage the legs of the lady until the end,
09:04 and we saw...
09:06 Often, what I mean is that it is often beautiful moments.
09:09 It is not at all something...
09:11 Even for the families, well, sad, of course,
09:14 but it is always a beautiful moment of sharing, of emotion,
09:17 and I have the impression, and I think there are studies that show it,
09:20 that often sorrows are better after an euthanasia.
09:23 I am not at all saying that everyone should have an euthanasia,
09:26 but because things are very clear,
09:29 things have been said, goodbyes have been made,
09:32 thanks and all that.
09:34 Sometimes, it is a bit heavy, but light, not heavy,
09:37 because there is this recognition, there is all that makes that...
09:40 I talk about it like that now, but I don't live it badly at all,
09:43 or I don't find it heavy.
09:45 Maybe if we had to do a lot, maybe,
09:47 but on the scale where we do it, it always goes well.
09:51 The Eucharist is a way of life.
09:54 It is a way of life that is not just a way of life,
09:57 but a way of life that is a way of life.