Prison sentence for “act of love”
Suspended one-year term for 87-year-old who helped his wife to die
AN 87-year-old man has been given a suspended prison sentence for helping his sick wife to die.
Prosecutors iin Saint-Etienne had demanded a minimum three-year suspended sentence for what the defendant Jean Mercier described as “an act of love”.
Mr Mercier was prosecuted for “non assistance of a person in danger” a term his lawyer says has been used to create a crime of “assisted suicide” which does not exist in France.
A charged of “voluntary homicide” was dropped at the start of the case.
His lawyer said that he plans to appeal the decision.
Mr Mercier’s wife Josanne had been suffering from arthritis and depression and had broken her wrist fifteen days before her death aged 83.
She had also made several previous suicide attempts and for two years had been a member of the Association pour le droit de mourir dans la dignité.
The couple, who lived in Saint-Etienne, had been married for 55 years when on November 10, 2011 she had requested all her medication be ground up together and asked her husband to bring a glass of water which she then drank.
Mr Mercier, who now lives in Hérault, had waited until she had died before calling an ambulance to their home.
“It happened as she wanted,” he had previously claimed and had told the court his actions had been more horrible than anything he had experienced in Vietnam.
Mr Mercier told the court that he had previously agreed a pact with his wife.
The couple’s two children have also spoken of their “understanding” and “support for their father”.
Mr Mercier himself is suffering from Parkinson’s and prostate cancer and has said he would wish to do the same thing himself.
