Death of elderly French couple sparks assisted suicide debate Who has the right to hinder a person with nobody in their charge, who is up to date with their taxes, having worked all these years and then as a volunteer in the social services (to end their life)? Who has the right to force them to commit cruel practices when they want to leave this life serenely? The letter is addressed to the Paris prosecutor in which Georgette files a complaint for "non respect of freedom." She authorises her children to file the complaint in her name. Speaking to Le Parisien on Monday, their son, whose name was not given, said his parents "feared separation and dependency much more than death." He said that his parents had made up their minds "decades ago" to commit suicide together when they felt the time was right. They had been active until recently; Mr Cazes was an eminent economist-philosopher and author of a series of books including The History of Futures, which charted how the future was predicted throughout the ages. His wife was an author and Classics teacher, and later a volunteer social worker. Neither family nor friends provided any specific reasons as to why they had decided to die at this time or whether either was in chronic pain or suffering from a terminal illness. "They had such dynamism, such strong willpower," one neighbour in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux said. Others described them as "distinguished" and "charming." They were a couple who loved each other, you could tell that. One can understand how to go on living without each other would have seemed impossible," said another. They had lived, said their neighbour Jeannine, as they died: "Always arm in arm." As in Britain, debate over euthanasia and assisted suicide has been impassioned in recent years after a number of high profile cases. In France, the issue came to the fore last year when Amour, Michael Haneke's powerful film about love and euthanasia, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. François Hollande, France's president also issued an electoral promise to ensure a "dignified end of life." A 2005 law already authorises doctors to administer painkilling drugs at levels they know will, as a secondary effect, shorten a patient's life. But in July, France's medical ethics council advised against legalising euthanasia or assisted suicide. It nevertheless called for a "citizen's jury" to debate the matter. Their findings are due next month. Marie-Frédérique Bacqué, psychoanalyst and head of the review, Death Studies, said that while nobody could be prevented from ending their life, "assisted suicide widens the possibilities of killing, which is problematic and dangerous: how then could you refuse such a death to someone who is (simply) depressed?" Jean-Luc Romero, president of France's Association for the Right to Die in Dignity, said currently the majority of those who tried to commit suicide unaided had "violent deaths," such as hangings or defenestration - "a violence also inflicted on relatives who discover the bodies." "With assisted suicide you avoid trauma and allow a departure within minutes, without suffering and surrounded by loved ones," he said. A poll out this month suggested that 92 per cent of French are in favour of euthanasia for patients with "unbearable or incurable" illnesses.