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Dr. Frédéric Chaussoy, head of intensive care at the hospital in Boulogne, northern France, has been convicted of killing a 22-year old quadriplegic patient, Vincent Humbert, by injecting a barbiturate followed by potassium chloride. Since a car accident Vincent had been unable to speak and was nearly blind but had dictated memoirs by moving his thumb, entitled "I ask for the right to die." His mother Marie had earlier claimed to have injected him with barbiturates. This put him into a coma. The doctor then turned off the respirator, but Vincent survived this too. (Sunday Telegraph 23 Nov. 03) Dr. Chaussoy has appealed against his conviction, but the Alliance pour les Droits de la Vie has organised mass leafleting against euthanasia on 8 May in streets all over France.
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