2003-01-05 "Mort de Mireille Jospin-Dandieu"
Euthanasia is a very difficult problem.
This is one example to attract attention
also in a major newspaper of Japan.
Die with dignity is difficult in hospital
because of advancement of medical treatment
for prolong life.
'I'm 92 and it's time for me to leave,' said
Maman
Death of Lionel Jospin's mother advances
cause of euthanasia in France. Paul Webster
in Paris reports
Sunday December 15, 2002
The Observer
A poignant letter from Mireille Jospin -
the 92-year-old mother of former Socialist
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin - explaining
why she took her own life last week has given
a powerful boost to the campaign to legalise
euthanasia, which she described as 'the peace
of the body in its time'.
'Ninety-two years - it is time to leave before
deteriorations set in,' she wrote on the
day of her death to members of an association
called the Right to Die with Dignity, of
which she was a member. 'I am leaving this
life calmly. Even so, I am very sad to leave
my family, big and small, and my friends:
[but] isn't that in the order of things?
'My husband and children have filled my life.
I am not a believer in the strict sense of
the term, but I often say and repeat: thank
you, thank you for the magnificence of this
world. I would really like a little later
on to lift a corner of the veil to see if
mankind has become wiser, if it has given
up destroying itself.
'I adore flowers. My husband and children
have seen to it that they always accompanied
me - from the little bouquets of marigolds
at the start of my marriage to the magnificent
roses, hortensias and orchids which my children
offer me now. They have given me a mirror
of life: budding, blooming, fading, over
periods of different lengths, faithful to
themselves, an image of all life.'
Her death notice in newspapers, which announced
she 'had calmly decided to leave this life',
was believed to be the first time recognition
of what the association calls 'self-deliverance'
had been declared publicly by a family.
Although the former midwife, who brought
thousands of children into the world, was
active until a few days before her death,
much of her interest in continuing a struggle
against age had declined since her son, 65,
was beaten in the first round of the May
presidential election and gave up all official
activity.
'She had entered into a state of physical
dependence which she did not want,' Edith
Dyris, secretary-gen eral of a pro-euthanasia
movement, said.
Mme Jospin, whose married name was Dandieu,
joined the movement 10 years ago and is understood
to have discussed her motives with her Protestant
family and told them of her decision.
The association's president, Jean Cohen,
said she had told him she 'wanted to leave'.
She was one of 28,000 members who instructed
the movement to persuade doctors to interrupt
medical treatment in the event of chronic
illness or loss of independence.
'I am being besieged with questions by members
since her death,' Cohen said. 'If Mme Jospin
[a widow since 1990], who has influential
relations, could leave this life when she
wanted, probably through the use of medicines,
then why should other people not be able
to do the same? This is an inequality that
has to be resolved.'
The association's 30 medical advisers are
authorised to contact doctors treating elderly
patients who no longer want therapy. A decision
whether to withdraw treatment or to shorten
life is taken in secrecy, but it is believed
barbiturates are frequently prescribed.
While suicide is not a crime, helping someone
to die is potentially punishable by life
imprisonment. The advertising of products
that could be used for suicide can result
in a three-year jail term.
Mme Jospin, whom her son called 'ma petite
maman', attended an association meeting in
October. She walked with a stick, but drove
her own car back to the Paris suburb of La
Celle-Saint-Cloud, where she was a council
candidate last year. While her son was Prime
Minister, she advised him on family policies
and two years ago backed midwives protesting
against his government's lack of funds for
maternal care.
Attempts to legalise euthanasia have failed
several times in parliament, but the impact
of Mme Jospin's manner of dying is likely
to take on increasing significance as the
number of old people rises. The number of
centenarians is now nearly 9,000 compared
with 1,000 in 1972.
Many are expected to live longer than Jeanne
Calment, the world's oldest woman at the
time, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.
France already has one of the highest life
expectancies in the world - 79 for men and
83 for women. By 2050, when a third of the
population will be over 75, the number of
people living to 100 will have reached more
than 165,000.
Independent
Mireille Jospin-Dandieu
Midwife and energetic campaigner
11 December 2002
Mireille Dandieu, midwife and campaigner:
born 1910; married 1930 Robert Jospin (died
1990; two sons, two daughters); died La Celle-St-Cloud,
France 6 December 2002.
Mireille Jospin-Dandieu's extraordinary life
received little attention outside her native
France, apart from mention of the death of
the mother of the former prime minister Lionel
Jospin. She was a patron of the euthanasia
campaign the Association for the Right to
Die with Dignity and chose the timing of
her death for herself. Her family announced
that she had "decided in serenity to
leave life behind".
She was born Mireille Dandieu, a metalworker's
daughter, and lost her own mother in her
early teens. After training as a midwife
in Paris in the late 1920s, she was still
active in her profession more than 60 years
later, having made the welfare of women foremost
among the array of causes to which she dedicated
her life. She was a keen supporter of Simone
Veil's campaign to end back-street abortions
and also fought against traditional female
genital mutilation.
Pacifism was a principle she shared with
her schoolteacher husband Robert Jospin,
whom she married in 1930. Her pacifist convictions
dated from her adolescent years, when the
Versailles settlement did not take long to
produce evidently nefarious effects in vanquished
Germany. Amnesty International and Greenpeace
gained from her formidable energy, as did
the child-centred solidarity movement ATD
Quart Monde.
As recently as March 2001, Mireille Jospin-Dandieu
was a candidate on a left-wing list in the
municipal elections, and took to the streets
with her colleagues demanding statutory recognition
of midwifery as a profession under French
law, not just a sideline in nursing. On the
outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991, she went
on peace demonstrations against the policies
of a Paris government in which her elder
son was already a cabinet minister.
Five years earlier, already aged 86, Jospin-Dandieu
travelled to the village of Nyema in Mali
to spend a month training midwives, having
first secured the signatures of her children
agreeing not to waste money bringing her
body home should she happen to die in the
effort. She was still driving her own car
in her ninth decade and apart from her more
public works, retained among her lifelong
enthusiasms music, Bible reading and rugby.
Michael Mullan
o LE MONDE | 07.12.02 | 14h27
Mort de Mireille Jospin-Dandieu
Mireille Jospin-Dandieu, mere de l'ancien
premier ministre Lionel Jospin, est decedee
vendredi 6 decembre a l'age de 92 ans dans
son appartement de La Celle-Saint-Cloud (Yvelines).
Dans un faire-part adresse au Monde, sa famille
indique qu'elle "a decide
dans la serenite de quitter la vie".
Mme Jospin-Dandieu etait membre du comite
de parrainage de l'Association pour le droit
a mourir dans la dignite (ADMD).
Nee en 1910 d'un pere chaudronnier quincaillier,
Mireille Jospin-Dandieu a toujours ete une
militante. Mariee a Robert Jospin et mere
de quatre enfants (Agnes, Lionel, Olivier
et Noelle), cette protestante convertie a
appris son metier de sage-femme a la maternite
Paul-Raynal a Paris. Un veritable sacerdoce.
Dans son livre Lionel (Editions Grasset,
2001), le journaliste Claude Askolovitch
raconte : "Elle travaillait sans cesse,
trois jours de sortie par mois. Elle a connu
les belles naissances et les joies des premiers
cris, mais aussi les femmes au corps dechire
de douleur, de honte et de sang, dans un
monde fait pour et par les hommes. Elle a
connu les femmes victimes des faiseuses d'anges,
la mort qu'on cotoyait. Mireille, au soir
de son existence, garde intacte son indignation
d'avant".
En 1996, alors agee de 86 ans, Mireille Jospin
etait partie avec des amis membres d'une
association de Bougival, passer un mois dans
un village au Mali pour former des sages-femmes
et transmettre son savoir. En 2001, alors
que Lionel Jospin est premier ministre, elle
defile dans les rues aux cotes des sages-femmes
qui reclament un statut.
PILIER DE LA FAMILLE
Mme Jospin-Dandieu etait aussi une femme
de tradition, le pilier de la famille. "Elle
a impose ses normes aux siens, tenu la famille
dans un ordre intangible (...) fonde sur
des principes sacres : ses memoires, ses
symboles, ses valeurs" ecrit Claude
Askolovitch, qui indique que, chez les Jospin,
il n'y avait "pas de jeux de guerre,
pas d'armes, pas d'invectives ni d'injures".
Apres la mort de son mari en mai 1990, elle
a continue a entretenir sa memoire en disposant
chaque matin la table du petit dejeuner pour
deux... Claude Askolovitch rapporte qu'un
soir, lors d'un diner avec Lionel Jospin
a l'hotel Matignon, elle apporta une photo
de son mari qu'elle posa devant l'assiette
du premier ministre en lui disant : "Je
l'ai apportee pour que tu n'oublies pas d'ou
tu viens".
Ignorant son age, Mireille Jospin-Dandieu
a continue ses activites sans compter et
a impose a sa famille de ne plus s'inquieter
pour elle. Membre de l'association ADMD,
elle a choisi elle-meme sa fin. Elle devrait
etre enterree aupres de son mari au cimetiere
de Meudon (Hauts-de-Seine).
D. Py
o ARTICLE PARU DANS L'EDITION DU 08.12.02
http://www.agevillage.com/Article/index.jsp?ARTICLE_ID=2000
Deces de Mireille Jospin, mere de l'ancien
Premier ministre Lionel Jospin
Quitter la vie dans la serenite
La famille de Mireille Jospin a annonce son
deces dans un avis paru samedi 7 decembre
dans le carnet du jour du Figaro.
"Mireille Jospin-Dandieu, sage femme,
veuve de Robert Jospin, membre du comite
de parrainage de l'Association pour le droit
a mourir dans la dignite (ADMD), a decide
dans la serenite de quitter la vie, a l'age
de 92 ans, le 6 decembre 2002", annoncait
l'avis de deces.
Mireille Jospin etait connue pour sa forte
personnalite. Ancienne sage femme, elle avait
mis au monde des milliers d'enfants et etait
connue pour son profond respect pour la vie.
Elle etait restee tres active : aide humanitaire
au Mali, soutien des sages femmes, en France,
lors de leur greve generale en mars 2001...
Le Journal du dimanche paru ce 8 decembre
relate que ses enfants avaient recemment
voulu lui offrir une seconde television,
pour sa chambre, mais qu'elle leur avait
declare preferer lire au lit, et qu'un micro-ordinateur
lui serait plus utile !
Le president Jacques Chirac a contacte par
telephone Lionel Jospin pour lui presenter
ses condoleances.
Association pour le Droit de Mourir dans
la Dignite : ADMD
L'Association pour le Droit de Mourir dans
la Dignite
(Association regie par la loi du 1er Juillet1901)
milite pour permettre a chacun d'avoir une
fin de vie digne et sereine, avec une pleine
liberte de decision face a l'echeance finale,
proche ou lointaine.
Son objectif essentiel est d'obtenir, par
le corps medical et les pouvoirs publics,
la reconnaissance d'une "declaration
de volonte de mourir dans la dignite".
, veritable testament de vie, permettant
a ceux qui en manifestent expressement le
desir, d'obtenir une aide active a mourir.
L'Association a une vocation humanitaire
: elle s'oppose a tout recours a l'euthanasie*
pour raison politique, sociale ou economique.
Elle reclame la legitimite du droit, pour
ceux qui le veulent et rien que pour eux-memes:
- de refuser l'acharnement therapeutique,
- d'user de tous les remedes pour calmer
les douleurs, meme au cas ou les seuls restant
efficaces risqueraient d'abreger la vie,
- de recourir eventuellement a l'aide a une
mort douce.
En fait, le but de cette association est
de faire evoluer les mentalites et les pratiques
a l'egard des derniers moments de la vie
pour mettre fin a l'abandon moral, a la decheance
et aux souffrances inutiles qui, trop souvent,
precedent et accompagnent la mort.
* du grec eu (=bien) et thanatos (= mort)
- c'est la mort sans souffrance.
Adresses internet :
- ADMD Haute Loire
- exit ADMD Suisse romande
- ADMD Finistere.