French woman with rare cancer denied right to die

Tuesday March 18, 2008

BBC News reports that a 52-year-old former schoolteacher and mother of three named Chantal Sebire has esthesioneuroblastoma (also called olfactory neuroblastoma), a rare cancer of the upper part of the nasal cavity that has disfigured her face and caused her to lose her senses of taste and smell. Only 200 cases of this kind of cancer have been recorded worldwide in the past two decades. Mme. Sebire asked the French court to allow doctors to help her die. Although France has legislation governing euthanasia, on Monday, March 17, 2008, the court ruled the law did not allow doctors to actively end a life.

Mme. Sebire has said she will not appeal the court ruling, but has indicated that she may go to another country where assisted suicide is legal. "I now know how to get my hands on what I need, and if I don't get it in France, I will get it elsewhere," she said in the BBC interview.