17th WORLD CONGRESS OF RIGHT TO DIE SOCIETIES

TOWN HALL - PARIS

Friday, October 31st 2008-10-25

Speech of Jean- Luc Romero,
president of ADMD - FRANCE

Monsieur le Maire,

Dear friends,


Before I start, I would like to thank the Mayor of Paris in the name of the ADMD team to have ,once again, put at our disposal this beautiful reception hall. This Town Hall will be today the house of Freedom for us. At the same time I would like to beg those of you who are not seated to forgive us. We cannot control how successful our events are.
This freedom we want is the freedom to regain control of the last phase of our life and its end.
This freedom is plural. One hand there is the freedom for those who want to stay alive as long as possible thanks to the progress of medicine. This freedom exists already but we would like to reaffirm it although we do not believe in it. Then there is the freedom for those who want it, to have access to palliative care. Today only 15% of those who should benefit from it, really do, meaning that 85% of the population does not have access to palliative care.
Last but not least there is the freedom for those who want to-and this is where we belong- decide in full conscience what the end of our life should look like.
When I mention freedom, it is our freedom I want to mention. We do not want to impose anything on anyone. Nevertheless we want the givers of lessons to stop telling us about what they call living and which is nothing but surviving. We are asking for the right to decide for ourselves.
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