Semi-paralyzed from birth, visually impaired and now losing control of still moving limbs, 43-year-old Lydie Imhoff seeks an escape from life.
Her native France still struggles with the ethical, moral and legal questions surrounding euthanasia – but neighboring Belgium has already taken over.
And Imhoff has decided to make sure that when the time comes, she can end her life on her own terms.
“My head is working, but my body is leaving me. I will not wait to become a vegetable before taking action,” she told AFP as she began the journey to death.
“I used to have the upper hand over my disability, but not at all anymore.”
Lydie Imhoff is a 43-year-old French citizen living in Besançon, France. She traveled to Belgium to obtain final approval from Belgian psychiatrist Marc Reisinger to be euthanized
Lydie Imhoff suffers from birth from hemiplegia and blindness due to a perinatal stroke. Her condition worsens year after year as she loses her mobility
With euthanasia still banned in France despite intense national debate, Imhoff has come to see Belgium as an “emergency exit” for when she finally wants to die.
But that emergency exit still has a lock and a gatekeeper – she’s come to Brussels to meet with a psychiatrist to explain her final decision.
And to contribute her experience to the euthanasia debate in the two countries, she invited AFP journalists to participate.
Strapped to a wheelchair and accompanied by her caregiver from her home in the eastern French town of Besançon, she talks for 45 minutes.
It is a painful story, her upbringing was marked not only by her disabilities, but also by illness and violent abuse within her own family.
The account is also dotted with charming moments of humor, such as when she upset her interviewer by talking about her “little free-roaming roommate” – her pet rabbit.
Imhoff came into the world catastrophically early after her mother’s five and a half month pregnancy and immediately suffered a debilitating stroke.
The premature birth left her paralyzed all over the left side of her body.
In adulthood, her disability did not stop her from her hobby, horseback riding, but in 2009 she suffered a serious fall resulting in brain trauma and spinal cord injury.
“Seventeen fractures in all,” she said.
Consulting Imhoff’s medical records, her interviewer Dr. Marc Reisinger finds a diagnosis of “tetraparesis”, a disease that wastes the limb muscles.
She doesn’t want to end her long battle right away, but worries that her symptoms are spreading and her muscle spasms are becoming more frequent.
Her native France still struggles with the ethical, moral and legal questions surrounding euthanasia — but neighboring Belgium has already taken over
The impetus for seeking a consultation in Belgium, where euthanasia can be legally requested, came when she lost feeling in the right hand she uses to read Braille.
“I was devastated. My fingers are all that’s left to maintain an autonomous existence.”
To underline the point, she demonstrates her struggle to take a sip of water herself from a glass or bottle, which she has to grab in the crook of her arm.
She admits to creating a psychological shell to isolate her from her pain, but said it’s not easy to maintain that facade because certain body parts succumb to pain.
Dr. Reisinger is convinced she meets the criteria to end her life.
“It’s okay for me,” he said.
“I think we can help you do what you want to do, when you want to do it.”
The Belgian law, passed in 2002, decriminalizes euthanasia and allows lethal injection if two doctors, a general practitioner and a specialist agree.
The text also states that the patient is in “constant, excruciating and untreatable” suffering caused by a “serious and incurable” condition.
Despite the strict criteria, the Federal Commission for Monitoring and Evaluation recorded 2,966 acts of euthanasia last year in this country of 11 million, a tenth more than in 2021.
Most who chose this latter route had cancer, followed by a group with multiple pathologies.
Among those seeking a quicker death were 53 residents of France.
“The debate is losing traction in France and some feel a lot of desperation. The result is greater pressure here,” says lawyer Jacqueline Herremans, member of the Belgian evaluation committee.
In France, a citizens’ convention of randomly selected residents has met to debate the issue and the government will provide advice next month on how to approach end-of-life care.
Currently, French law allows “deep and continuous sedation until death” in certain circumstances, but not actively assisted dying, even for the terminally ill or those in great suffering.
Elsewhere in Europe, active euthanasia is only legal in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain. Switzerland allows the use of deadly drugs if a patient can help administer them.
Reisinger suggests “freedom of choice” as a motive for allowing some form of assisted suicide or active euthanasia — and says a doctor has a duty to reduce pain.
“Why would he step aside at the last moment, the most crucial of all, and say, ‘I’m no longer here to process your suffering’? That doesn’t make any sense.” he stated.