Dr Bonnemaison, a 52 year old French emergency doctor from Bayonne, was struck off the regional register by the Aquitane Disciplinary Chamber of the “Ordre des Médecins”. He is also still under judicial scrutiny since August 2011 for “intoxicating 7 particularly vulnerable, elderly patients at the end of their life, by injecting substances that might have hastened their dying”. This indictment could result in a lifetime imprisonment. A petition to support this brave doctor can be signed here.
Dr Bonnemaison never denied his actions and always acknowledged that he gave lethal injections «to shorten suffering », but always after and within «communication with families, of which none have to this day lodged a complaint against him». He also declared to have ‘ full conscience of the seriousness of his acts ‘, motivated according to him ‘exclusively with a view to avoiding extreme suffering to the patients and respecting their dignity ‘.
For defence, Miss Benoît Ducos Ader reported “the hypocrisy” of the law Léonetti and recalled the absence of complainants in this affair. «They are not there to put a criminal in prison, they are there to discuss euthanasia », she added.
The decision of the Regional Disciplinary Chamber is appealed to: striking off the register is the most serious sanction (of 5) that can be taken.
Further reading in French on Tf1 website.
More than 200 French doctors, including some notorious ones, wrote an open letter to the French Doctors Association and President Hollande, asking them revoke the decision. A petition to support this brave doctor can be signed here.