Jean-Luc Godard, the revolutionary French-Swiss director who changed post-war cinema forever in Europe, died by doctor assisted suicide. His legacy is immortalized in films such as Vivre Sa Vie, Pierrot le Foe, Breathless, and Contempt. The medical report says that the 91-year-old had chosen to end his life.
He “had recourse to legal assistance in Switzerland for a voluntary departure” because he was “stricken with ‘multiple incapacitating illnesses’”, Godard’s legal council, Patrick Jeanneret, told AFP.
Family of the influential director said he died “peacefully at home” with his wife, the Swiss film-maker, Annie-Marie Miéville.
French paper Libération quoted an unnamed source close to the family: “He was not sick, he was simply exhausted. So he had made the decision to end it. It was his decision and it was important for him that it be known.”
The practice of assisted dying-helping someone end their life at their request- is regulated in Switzerland and is offered if it is not for a selfish motive and the person is in sound enough mind to make a conscious decision to end their suffering. In France, doctors are permitted to keep patients sedated until death but stop at assisted death.
Godard was born in Paris in 1930 to a Franco-Swiss family, but has lived as a recluse in the Swiss village of Rolle for decades.
At a 2014 appearance at that year’s Cannes Film Festival, Godard was asked about his views on dying. “If I’m too ill, I don’t have any desire to be lugged around in a wheelbarrow … not at all,” he said. In response to his answer another question asked whether he could imagine resorting to assisted dying, he said: “yes”, but added “for now”, saying that the choice was “still very difficult.”
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