Suicide spurs euthanasia movement

last updated 8 January 2015

Paris

Just before taking her own life last week, the mother of former prime minister Lionel Jospin sent a letter to French newspapers explaining her decision. “I am leaving this life calmly,” Mireille Jospin wrote. “Ninety-two years—it’s time to leave before deteriorations set in.” Jospin’s death, believed to be from an overdose of barbiturates, has revived a debate about euthanasia in France. She was a member of the Right to Die With Dignity society and lobbied avidly for the repeal of laws banning doctors from helping the terminally ill to kill themselves. France has one of the highest life expectancies in the world: 79 for men and 83 for women.