French Woman Found Dead After Court Rejected Request for Assisted Suicide

According to Euthanasia debate woman found dead, CNN.com, March 20, 2008:

A French woman severely disfigured by facial tumors has been found dead just two days after a court rejected her request for an assisted suicide.***

It was not immediately clear how Sebire died.***

Assisted suicide is illegal in France, however. The law permits only passive euthanasia -- removing feeding and hydration tubes when a person is in a coma, or inducing a coma and then removing the tubes.

Sebire's lawyer had tried to convince a French court that it was "barbaric" to put her through the ordeal of dying slowly in an artificial coma, something that could take up to two weeks while her three children looked on in anguish.

The court turned down the appeal Monday.

At the same time, Sebire wrote a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy appealing for help, but he responded by suggesting top doctors should reexamine her for a second opinion.***

France's prime minister and health and justice ministers all made clear they did not believe changes in French law were needed.