“A Free, Conscious and Consensual Death” - Nicolas Menet’s Ultimate Plea for the Right of Death

Discussion with his tumor, moments of life with his friends, days in the hospital… faire le deuil de soi, or self-mourning, traces back the last year and a half of Nicolas Menet. This autobiography, published post-mortem in March 2023, is the ultimate life project of the author, and is, for us, a strange glimmer of hope, a new starting point, and a strengthened will to live through the journey that is life. 

Nicolas Menet is a French sociologist, who focuses his work on the aging of society in France. In February 2022, he is diagnosed with a glioblastoma stage 4, an incurable brain cancer, and given only a few months to live. Soon enough, doctors are not speaking about remission or healing, but only mentioning the goal of preserving his quality of life. And soon enough, Menet realizes his hopes of eradicating the cancer through his first operation must die, and that he can only hope to leave peacefully. With this, he decides to write his last book, a piece with a sociological and political front, crucial to the current French discussion on end-of-life laws, accompanied with a beautiful personal aspect, opening up about his last months. He focuses on his death, making his ultimate life project this book. 

“Forced to live in a form of the present; what’s ‘to be’ holds no interest, the future has no use in my case.” - Nicolas Menet, interview with Konbini 

Menet doesn’t try and hide the fear or curate a flawless image of himself; he admits to his fears, the way he doesn’t know what is to come, how he has to depend on his loved ones, and cannot rely on the future. Sometimes afraid of death, sometimes at peace with who he describes as an “old friend” ( Nicolas Menet, faire le deuil de soi), he takes us through his difficult moments: the moment when he realizes he is going to die, his slow loss of functional capacity, the difficulty of seeing the anticipated mourning of his loved ones… 

Less personally, he also focuses on the lessons that can be learned from his story. At the end of his book in December 2022, he writes a letter to the senators and deputies of the French government. Beautifully written, this letter takes from his first-hand experience with the end-of-life process, and how it can be used for future lawmakers. Describing himself as a “future deceased” he argues for a “free, conscious and consensual death” (Nicolas Menet, faire le deuil de soi & letters to the senators and deputies). 

In the letter, he argues for the right to end one’s own life, especially in the case of incurable illnesses. Today, in France, the main end-of-life law that exists is that of Claeys-Leonetti (1999, 2005, 2016) which allows for a continuous and deep sedation until death, giving the ‘most comfortable’ death. Yet, this law is severely limited, and is not enough in a process as personal as death. Menet believes in the capacity and right of all of us to decide for ourselves, and turns the question of death into one of personal choice and freedom.

« If i am still cognitively capable, I should be the only one judging of my mental state, and determining if there is enough life in me to die or to live” - Nicolas Menet, letter to the senators and deputies

The issue at hand is not whether to legalize all euthanasia --importantly, he never makes a clear statement on this question throughout the book-- it is rather to give patients the right to have power over their lives and have everyone be a true actor in what he describes as their “end-of-life projects” (Nicolas Menet, faire le deuil de soi). For Menet, this right arises directly from the human dignity intrinsic to all, that starts at birth and ends with death. This right would be heavily protected, framed by psychological assessment, a total right to change your decision until the last minute, and a consideration of the state of the illness. And yes, a right to die is an unpleasant truth to hear, as it forces us to confront the reality of our life, limited and hanging by a thread. And yet, Menet helps the reader reconcile with the idea of death through a book that shows that, just maybe, one should think about death, not as an ending point that is forced upon them, but as a last shred of human dignity, and the final line that one decides to write about themselves. 

“ That is why, before I leave, I am allowing myself to make a few suggestions, as the aspiring member of parliament that I was before the attack of a type 4 glioblastoma” - Nicolas Menet, letter to the senators and deputies 

This book falls within a larger question in France about end-of-life laws. For now, the country only allows refusal of treatment and end-of-life care- encompassing both palliative care and deep sedation- only when the vital diagnosis of someone is engaged. In February this year, an end-of-life law was reintroduced to the French assembly. This law, which aimed to facilitate assisted suicide and reinforce the palliative care system, can be interpreted as continuing the message carried in Menet’s book. Yet, upon arrival at the assembly, the law was divided into two, one about end of life, and one about palliative care; which can be seen as a move to push the latter forward while abandoning the former. Access to palliative care in France is restricted and not as secure as it should be, forcing certain people to leave their city and support system to have access to the necessary resources. In that sense, passing a law about it would be a solution to some of the issues that Menet mentions. Yet, this good step does not seem nearly enough to truly safeguard human dignity at a time as crucial as one’s death. 

"At some point, one must fight against this life instinct that keeps us from dying at the right moment” - Nicolas Menet, interview with Konbini 

Menet’s book also portrays a political combat, expanding far beyond his story and the French borders. The question of euthanasia and assisted death is heavily debated worldwide. The difference between the two on a terminological aspect has repercussions on the legislation around the issue. Assisted suicide consists of someone ending their life by themselves, most commonly through the self-administration of prescribed drugs. This does however mean that someone from the medical corps will prescribe such drugs, enabling the later suicide to happen. In the 40 countries where assisted suicide is illegal, the act of enabling such suicide falls under the criminal code, and attempting to end one’s life in such a way is highly discussed. In France, suicide was illegal for long, and today, its assistance is highly questioned, making it harder to pass laws on that topic than in countries where suicide was never a legal issue. 

Euthanasia on the other hand requires direct action of a third party on the person wanting to end their life, most commonly a doctor injecting a lethal drug. This leads to questions in certain countries about the role of the physician in the death, and whether doctors should then be considered as murderers. Legally speaking, ‘consented’ murder is not as penalized as homicide, but still has numerous repercussions, such as imprisonment for 14 years in the UK. Hence, the right to euthanasia is much more debated than that of assisted suicide.  In Switzerland for example, the first country to legalize assisted suicide, euthanasia remains illegal.  

Here, Menet’s book focuses on the case of France, but that does not mean that the questions raised about the right to decide about one’s life, and the end of it, are restricted to the French people. While different countries have decided on different rights, the questions about the right of death, and its relation to human dignity, are universal.

“I do not want to be given hope, or made to believe in the miracles of science or God” - Nicolas Menet, letter to the senators and deputies 

Another reason for the difficulty of legislating on such issues is the moral aspect of the question. Can we force doctors--who’ve spent years of their lives trying to save people--to help kill someone? At a theological level, can one take away the life that God gave? 

No matter how harsh this might sound, for most of us, those questions are not ours to answer. If you are a doctor, and do not want to help, today, you have no obligation other than to redirect the person to someone that can help. There are rightful concerns, which are for now mostly unanswered, that if euthanasia were to be legislated upon, doctors could be required to perform it, regardless of their ideals. This should lead to a discussion on how to safeguard the integrity of doctors, rather than preventing the passing of the law altogether. 

If you are religious and believe that God would not want you to die in such ways, it is well within your rights, and very respectable, to decide to keep going as long as God gives you the strength to. Yet, imposing your religious beliefs on someone, especially in countries where religion is not supposed to supersede the state, seems quite controversial, and even more so on a question as personal and complex as death. 

In both cases, to make such arguments, you rely on the rights that the state gives you; the freedom to become a doctor, or the freedom of religion in a ‘secular’ state. Somewhat in parallel to this, Menet presents the question of death as another right that the French Republic should guarantee, the right to end one’s own life. In his letter, he presents the right to die and the services around it as the ultimate safeguard of equality and freedom of the French Republic.  

“I want now the freedom to die whenever I decide” - Nicolas Menet, faire le deuil de soi 

Nicolas Menet’s story is his own, and he does not try to make it someone else’s, nor a global truth. He teaches us a hard lesson. His book, published after his death, was only part of his message, also shared through interviews on national television, YouTube channels... He gave to his loved ones the mission to help push forward this freedom of death, and through this article, I hope to help fulfill part of this work, in memory of the sociologist, academic, and friend that Nicolas was. 

Cover image by ©️ Didier Gomila/ombreetnature.com