Debate rages as right-to-die campaigner dies

A FRENCH “right to die” advocate who was refused permission for an assisted suicide has been found dead in the latest twist to a drama that has reopened a euthanasia debate the country thought it had concluded three years ago.

Officials gave no details yesterday about how Chantal Sebire, 52, died late on Wednesday. She suffered from a rare and painful sinus tumour, a condition called esthesioneuroblastoma or ENB, that robbed her of taste, smell and sight and made her eye sockets bulge out many times their normal size.

On Monday, a court in Dijon refused her request for help to die because that would breach medical ethics and an end-of-life law passed in 2005 allows “passive euthanasia” but bars assisted suicide.