Sara Piazza will present Saturday, May 4 at the bookstore L’allais Euthanasia: social progress?, a dense book, extremely topical, knowing that at the end Of May the text of the bill legalizing assisted suicide will be debated in the National Assembly. Isabelle Marin is a doctor and philosopher by training, a pioneer of palliative care in France, she worked for a long time in palliative care in a hospital in 93. Sara Piazza is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. She works in intensive care and in a mobile palliative care team. She is president of the local ethics committee (created in 1983) of the Saint-Denis Hospital Center.
Euthanasia, social progress or regression, such is the theme of this book which could be subject to controversy. The authors develop their points of view and reveal their experience over 78 pages. “In a society where public health is deteriorating, how can we talk about social progress? Wouldn’t the urgency be to help people live, rather than die?“, they plead.
“Euthanasia is neither social progress nor the accomplishment of the march of History, it is the ultimate development of a capitalist culture where the useless, the dependent is asked to leave the scene, where care is reduced to the technical management of bodies. Of course, death and suffering are scary, of course, great dependence terrifies us, but both vulnerability and mortality are common experiences that we should collectively take charge of.“, say the authors, in a call rather for solidarity, questioning the deeper meaning of euthanasia.
“Lack of means”
And further, they develop and question our health system: “Access to what is modestly called ‘assisted dying’ is coming to the fore, while access to care and help to live is currently in great danger. The lack of resources in public hospitals in general and more particularly in all so-called ‘comfort’ care, including palliative care, has a direct impact on poor populations. The currently popular euthanasia and assisted suicide come cheaply to resolve more fundamental issues in our health system… Proposing a quick, inexpensive end, supposedly without suffering, would allow the economy to rethink the health care system .“
Positions expressed, the debate can begin between Sara Piazza, who goes even further in the work, closer to life and her readers. It will be Saturday May 4 at 3 p.m. at the bookstore.
“Euthanasia: social progress?”, 78 pages, 7.40 euros.
