Chantal Sebire was a retired teacher and mother of three living in Plombieres-les-Dijon, France. In 2000, she was diagnosed with esthesioneuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer that hits the nasal cavity. The cancer spreads through the face, disfiguring victims. It also blinds them and leaves them without a sense of smell or taste. Finally, the cancer gets into the brain and kills the individual.
Sebire knew the cancer would kill her over the course of years in a very painful and grotesque way that didn’t allow her to even venture out in public. Her disfigurement was quite profound; people stared, and children ran away in fear.
In 2008, she asked the French court for assistance with suicide. She was denied. In 2005, France had passed a law saying that it could withhold treatment to a terminally ill patient, but a doctor couldn’t actively participate in the death. On March 17, she lost the right for assistance in her death.
Two days later, her body was found in her home. She had died two days earlier from an overdose of pentobarbital, which is not stocked by French pharmacies. The drug is used in Switzerland, Belgium, and the US state of Oregon for the purposes of euthanasia.