Nicolas Bonnemaison, a French doctor who ended the lives of seven terminally ill patients, was acquitted of all charges against him on Wednesday after a long, emotionally charged trial that has revived the divisive debate over euthanasia in France, reports FRANCE 24.
The courtroom in Pau, a city in southwestern France, erupted in thunderous applause after the judge read his ruling in the case. Bonnemaison smiled while holding his lawyer’s hand.
Benoît Ducos-Ader, the defendant’s lawyer, hailed the decision as “enormous”, adding that he hoped it would contribute to the national debate over euthanasia.
Bonnemaison, a former emergency room doctor, was accused of "poisoning particularly vulnerable people" – five women and two men who died between March 2010 and July 2011 – soon after being admitted to a hospital in the southwestern city of Bayonne where he worked.
His trial began on June 11 and heard intense, and sometimes poignant, evidence touching on compassion, the solitude of the doctor in taking decisions, the danger of his or her power and vivid descriptions of agony.
Frédéric Chaussoy, a doctor who ended the life of a young quadriplegic at the demand of the patient, Vincent Humbert, and his distraught mother in 2003, was one of many who testified during Bonnemaison’s trial. Chaussoy, whose role in his patients’ death ultimately led to a 2005 law that legalised passive euthanasia, called for the debate on euthanasia to take place outside of court.
"It's definitely not up to justice to settle these problems, but up to society and politicians to deal with this," he said.
Perhaps most poignant of all, however, were the testimonies of the families of Bonnemaison’s patients.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.